Through my years in pitching stories on behalf of our clients, I’ve forged friendships with many of our editorial contacts.  One of these friendly relationships just so happened to be at Meredith Publishing in Des Moines, Iowa, which by coincidence is near the hometown where I grew up. Since this summer I was planning on attending a high school reunion not far from Des Moines, I reached out to my long-time contact at Better Homes & Gardens and arranged an in-person meeting.

It turned out to be the best learning experience for me as to how I should go forward in pitching magazines and newspapers to secure coverage for our clients. The added benefit was a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of putting a well-known, highly respected magazine together. It was also a delight to finally meet the person that I had been exchanging emails with for the past several years and to put a face on our relationship.

I was amazed at how much effort, thought and planning goes into each issue not to mention the team of assistants and editors in order to get the issues out on deadline. She walked me through several departments, introduced me to other assistants and editors and gave me a tour of their perfectly manicured test gardens.  As I discovered, the test gardens are used a testing area for plants as well as a photography studio for Better Homes & Gardens.

I left Better Homes & Gardens editorial headquarters with a new understanding of how to pitch a magazine and zero in on what products are a good match for each individual department as well as making a few new contacts . All in all, not a bad way to start off a little time away from work!

Here at Ideas Collide we’ve been having an internal debate: With marketing centered around digital advertising and social media, would something as simple as a poster still catch your eye and deliver results?

Here’s what our ICMC Summer promo piece would like plastered around the Phoenix Metro area – would this make you look twice and intrigue you to find out more? Or is this an antiquated marketing method that has become extinct in the digital era?

As we come up upon the Fourth of July, one begins to see and hear the lore that surrounds the anniversary of our country’s independence – and the one event that stands out in my mind is the night ride of Paul Revere.

Now, you might ask, “What does that have to do with advertising?” but think about it – he came up with a catch phrase that virtually everyone has heard, but more importantly, remembered for over 200 years.

“The British are coming” is probably the best tagline/headline/catch phrase of all-time. And I started thinking about Mr. Revere, brainstorming on what he was going to say as he rode through the countryside warning of the impending invasion. I mean, coming up with a memorable tagline just doesn’t happen – here’s a list of taglines he probably came up with before he came up with the winner.

• “The guys in the red coats are coming!” (Could be confused with Santa Claus)

• “Wake up you sleepy heads, the bad guys are coming!” (Pretty vague, no sizzle)

• “You know that invading force you were told were coming, yeh, they’re on their way right now.” (A little rambling, right?)

Taglines today have to be more than they’ve ever been before. They’re not just descriptive labels but slogans that you want your customers to repeat, over and over again (“Where’s the beef?” comes to mind).

Here’s a good guideline for creating your own, “The British are coming!”

 Keep it short. (“Got Milk?”, “Just do it.”)

Make it memorable. (“M’m M’m good!”)

Highlight a benefit. (“The ultimate driving machine.”)

Offer Confidence. (“You’re in good hands with Allstate.”)

Most of all, write a tagline that you can own, that reflects your brand, and means something to the consumer – just like Paul Revere did.