The humble tagline is in demand again.<\/p>\n
In the past year, my teammates and I have seen the tagline\u2019s resurgence in RFPs across the board, from pharmaceuticals to footwear\u2013 like a long-lost relative suddenly on our doorstep.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s in the market as well \u2013 many brands have begun to re-embrace the punch of a tight few words. Tag Heuer\u2019s new CEO has sought to re-align the brand in its sports territory with \u201cDesigned to Win\u201d, Ford has launched its first global marketing effort in 15 years with \u201cReady Set Ford\u201d, and Carrier has evolved its brand with a mission-driven tagline, \u201cFor the world we share.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shake Shack has even recently garnered press for simply announcing that they were planning to have a tagline in the future.<\/p>\n
The most significant tagline of late might be Nike\u2019s recent evolution of \u201cJust Do It\u201d into \u201cWhy Do It\u201d? \u2013 reimagining the tagline of all taglines to address a new generation of athletes, celebrating greatness as a choice you make, not an outcome you expect.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Like a new name or logo change, a tweaked tagline signals a new chapter. By carefully refining one of their most iconic brand assets, Nike signals they\u2019re capable of moving forward while staying true to their core. It shows a brave willingness to tinker with one of their most valuable brand assets\u2013 imagine the Swoosh growing a second tail.<\/p>\n
But why taglines now?<\/p>\n
One answer may lie in the complexity of today\u2019s brand systems. Brand marketers today often face an internal uphill battle when it comes to overseeing consistency.<\/p>\n
Tasked with vision, governance and training across an organisation, brand teams can feel siloed or resisted, for example by strong-willed product teams with little appetite for brand oversight or overseas marketing teams enthralled with their regional audiences.<\/p>\n
Externally, brand marketers must ensure brand expression across an ever-dizzying array of channels, audiences and touchpoints. From this vantage point, the sheer blunt power of the tagline must look pretty enticing \u2013 your brand in a nutshell, one catchy phrase slapped across an ad, package or pitch deck, anywhere, anytime.<\/p>\n
Another answer might be the shifting infoscape where brands must compete for attention.<\/p>\n
With the rise of AI as consumer tool, the future of performance marketing is in doubt. Research by Adobe Analytics shows an eye-watering 1,200% increase in retail website traffic from generative AI sources from July 2024 to Feb 2025.<\/p>\n
Together with the tagline\u2019s resurgence, these suggest that marketers might be eager to find new ways for their brands and products to cut through as the digital landscape shifts under their feet.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t keep flooding eyeballs with banner ads, is the implication. We need a thing, a memorable thing, that can take the spotlight.<\/p>\n
The point isn\u2019t \u2013 times are changing; your brand needs a tagline. The point is \u2013 times are changing; your brand should develop its expression to meet the moment.<\/p>\n
One way is to design a tagline as you would a logo or name \u2013 with clarity, purpose and creativity so that the tag can most effectively help push a brand forward.<\/p>\n
In designing an effective tagline, one risk is that a line, like any other singular asset, can become a kind of fetish object in the course of a marketing lifecycle.<\/p>\n
In our lives and in our work, we can fetishise certain singular things, imbuing them with grand significance, as a way of avoiding more unpleasant truths or complex challenges \u2013 like wrangling an entire organisation to be better brand ambassadors.<\/p>\n
So assign a distinct strategic role to the tagline, rather than expecting it to solve all your problems.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s at the brand or campaign level, a tagline in 2025 has arguably more potential roles it can play than ever before. If Nike\u2019s new line works, it\u2019s because \u201cWhy Do It?\u201d is strategically continuing a decades-long brand-audience dialogue with a new twist, turning a classic call-to-action tagline into a provocative question.<\/p>\n
Be clear on what role you want your tagline to play \u2013 whether it\u2019s rallying cry, mindset, heritage marker, or something else entirely.<\/p>\n
Then imagine how that tagline role fits into your overall brand and business. Because the truth is that a good tagline truly functions as a tag \u2013 part of a whole, like the tag on a pair of jeans.<\/p>\n
If we often talk about the job of brand expression as good storytelling, it\u2019s worth remembering that the title of a novel is never the whole story. The job of brand storytelling should never rest on the shoulders of any one facet, but rather how they all work in concert.<\/p>\n
A story, after all, is not one single thing \u2013 it\u2019s a set of things in meaningful sequence. So design your tagline with your broader brand language in mind \u2013 your messaging, your tone, your name, (not to mention your logo, design system, brand experience\u2026) since these elements all draw strength from one another.<\/p>\n
Lastly, when you think tagline, think dialogue. \u201cWhy Do It\u201d? works because it\u2019s building on decades of brand-audience dialogue between Nike and athletes around the world who are undoubtedly familiar with \u201cJust Do It.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an age when effective mass communication is essential but thornier than ever, brand marketers can thrive by applying the eternal rules of real human conversation \u2013 including knowing when to speak your mind, when to shut up, when to crack a joke, and when to ask a question.<\/p>\n
Brands that deploy effective taglines today won\u2019t satisfy themselves with quick wit or a sly turn of phrase to land their story. They\u2019ll nail the brief, consider the system, and mind the dialogue before they let their tagline do the talking.<\/p>\n
William Rauscher is verbal director at Wolff Olins.<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n