Like anyone that has a marketing or advertising component to their job, finding the right way to break through the clutter and make your message memorable is one of the toughest goals to achieve. I picked up Powerlines by Steve Cone with the hope that it might offer some formula or tips on how to create great powerlines for use in my marketing/advertising copy.
To be clear, Cone defines Powerlines as “a compelling story about an event, person, place, product, or a part of human nature that has lasting impact. Sometimes these lines are just a few words, sometimes several sentences, and once in a great while, must one word.” This definition in itself is not very powerline-ish but it is a definition … just one that I couldn’t remember off the top of my head and had to go look up just now. He also says powerlines must “ring true” and they should not overreach.
I like books that have lots of great examples and then actions you can take immediately to start enacting the change the book is advocating. Powerlines has lots of great examples but I didn’t find the tips came early enough in the book. Either I’m not seeing them or they just aren’t there. He had tidbits here and there but he didn’t dedicate as much text to steps you can take to improve the powerlines you create.
What there is a lot of is examples. In fact, there are way too many examples. In one chapter he lists almost every single presidential campaign slogan from the beginning of the republic. He takes time to explain why it was good and some background to put the slogan in context. I found it to be way over the top, I could have done with about half as much.
I also found Cone used the same examples over and over again to stress his points. For example, Ronald Reagan’s “It’s morning again in America,” was repeated several times throughout the book. He was also fond of citing FedEx’s “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
Both of these are great powerlines but they didn’t do much to help me create my own powerlines by using them again and again.
The author does give some great tips on creating your own powerline, albeit closer to the end of the book. They are:
- Convey a genuine truth or depict an experience—real or imaginary.
- Build them to last and should rarely, if ever, be changed.
- Convey a benefit, show how they will improve our lives, recommend an action or offer some other satisfaction.
- Are made more memorable if they can be set to music or made to rhyme.
- Should be made to move on the screen on television or online.
- Should be a prominent touch point with the consumer, i.e., large and pervasive throughout the campaign.
There’s no doubt Cone knows his stuff and I would love to have him over for dinner to discuss advertising and marketing. In the case of Powerlines, I’m not certain Cone set out to actually create a step-by-step plan to come up with great powerlines. In fact one point that has stuck with me is he says powerlines are never created by group of committee but rather by individuals who have a deep understanding of the brand.
Powerlines gets a high rating on Amazon but in terms of Powerlines being a textbook for learning to create you own powerlines, it falls short.
