Requiring air talents to bark out tag lines every time they open their mouth is wasting precious time. Time that could be better spent delivering a hook headline to instantly engage the audience. You don’t want to waste even a nanosecond when the average attention span is down to nine seconds, according to one study.
Saying “The Best Mix of the ‘80s, ‘90s and Now” first, every talk break, will be rattled off ineffectively at best by most air personalities. Tag lines have become meaningless commercial noise to most listeners. We have moderated many focus groups and have been surprised to find that the majority of respondents could not recall a radio station slogan even though it had been pounded for years every break.
Take the first step toward more impactful branding, and only include your tag line in the produced imaging where it can be sold effectively and where it will stand out more prominently.
The second step is to devise a way, through your imaging and marketing, to entice people to want to be associated with your brand. Think how brands like Apple and Starbucks have created the cool factor.
Brand questions to address:
What is the experience of listening to your radio station and/or morning show? How is your station/show connecting emotionally to listeners? What makes people come back to you again and again and become loyal to your brand?
Check out the Geoffrey James article from INC magazine, “Forget Your Tag Line. It’s Obsolete.”
