1. Headlines and Taglines
Advertising Strategy
(Alstiel and Grow)

2. Headline types, when to use it
News: when you want to introduce a new product, new brand, new feature
Direct benefit: when you want to promise a reward or highlight the prime benefit in the headline
Curiosity: when you want to intrigue the reader into finding the main ideas in the body copy
Emotional: when you want to sell the image and/or invoke resonance in the reader

3. Headline types, when to use it
Directive (Command): when you want the reader to do something
Horn blowing: when you want to impress the reader by being the biggest, the fastest, the first, etc
Comparison: when you want to differentiate your brand from the competitor or use a metaphor to describe your product
Label: when you want to focus on the brand name, product name, or campaign tagline rather than discuss features/ benefits

4. Magic Words
Advice, Announcing, At last, Free, how, how to, new, reduced, this, wanted, which, who else, why

5. Writing Headlines with Style
Style – Headline – Visual – Client
Question – Do you really need more proof that drinking impairs your judgment? – Plain girl morphing into a fashion model as it gets later in the evening – MADD
Question – Ever seen a grown man guy? – Broken whiskey bottle on floor – Crown Royal
How-to – How to convert liters into cups – Race car and racing trophies – Acura

6. Writing Headlines with Style
Style – Headline – Visual – Client
How-to – How to write an obituary for your teenager – [All-type ad] – Partnership for a drug-free America
Quote – I told my dad I stopped raising hell and he called me a quitter – Redneck-looking guy smoking a cigarette - Winton
Quote – These tables are my voice and I’m about to holla the world – DJ scratching two turntables – Moutain Dew Red

7. Ineffective Headlines
Asking a question that cannot be answered (confusing)
Asking a question that can be answered with a simple yes or no (no involvement)
Using a headline as a caption, describing rather than interacting (no synergy with visuals and limited involvement)

8. Ineffective Headlines
Using puns that have no relation to the product or the market
Insulting, condescending, patronizing (annoys intelligent readers)
Being clever for the sake of cleverness (trying to impress rather than persuade)

9. Subheads

10. Preheads

11. Top 10 Taglines A diamond is forever Just do it
The pause that refreshes
Tastes great, less filling
We try harder
Good to the last drop
Breakfast of champions
Does she …. Or doesn’t she?
When it rains, it pours
Where’s the beef?

12. Top 10 Taglines DeBeers Nike Coca-Cola Miller Lite Avis Maxwell House
Wheaties
Clairol
Morton Salt
Wendy’s

13. How to write more Effective Taglines
Keep it short and simple
Think jingle
Try to differentiate the brand
If you have to be generic, go global
Play with words
Don’t confuse or mislead
Justify your choices