That’s Intriguing #72: What’s Your Nomination for This Year’s POP! Hall of Fame?

“Are you standing out from the crowd – or getting lost in the crowd?” – Sam Horn, author of POP!

It’s that time of year again:-)

Time to pick the most intriguing business names, marketing slogans, ad campaigns and book titles that stood out and helped their company or cause get noticed, remembered, bought and/or funded.

The point? If you want to succeed, you need to POP! out of your pack.

And one of the best ways to POP! out is create a NURD (New Word or first-of-its-kind phrase) that gets everyone’s eyebrows up and turns them into a word-of-mouth ambassador who takes you viral.

What’s your favorite NURD (New Word) from 2011?

Nominate it by Dec. 10.

Take your message to the next level

If your entry is selected for our 2011 POP! Hall of Fame; you’ll receive a prize … your choice of the audio version or paperback version of my new book Current Quotes: Intriguing Quotes from Today’s Top Icons, Innovators and influeners.

What’s different about Current Quotes? You have to be ALIVE to be included.

Here at the Intrigue Institute, we like John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt as much as the next person.

However, as soon as most people hear, “I have a dream …” or “The only thing we have to fear …” their eyes roll.

It’s not that profound quotes from those respected thought leaders aren’t true; they’re just not new.

The purpose of POP! is to break through busy people’s preoccupation and “been there, heard that” skepticism and get their favorable attention.

Submit the brand, book, product or program title or tagline that got your favorable attention this year – and help it get even more of the attention it deserves.

As our gift to you for submitting an entry, we’ll email you the 20 Most Intriguing Quotes from 2011 to get YOUR eyebrows up. Now, that’s a win-win-win.

To jump-start your thinking, here are our favorite entries so far plus a few winners from previous years.

1. YOumanity: A creative corporate campaign by Aviva Life Insurance that proves companies can contribute via a “rising tide that raises all boats” outreach.

2. Snuba: It’s half SNorkel and half ScUBA. It’s SNUBA, a multi-million dollar sport that shows there ARE new things under the sun.

3. Info-besity. We’re stuffed with information and starving for insight.

4. Random Hacks of Kindness: A worldwide gathering of tech types who collaborate for the common good.

5. Stuffocating: This NURD was coined by TV channel TLC for a program on the stifling impact of w-a-y too much stuff.

6. MEtailing: Customers use these online options to customize their purchases.

7. Jeggings: Part jeans – part leggings. This innovative product generated $180 M in sales, proving that POP! is more than clever word play; it helps produce bottom line profits.

8. Snowmageddon: What it’s called when 30 inches of snow gets dumped on Wash DC. An excellent example of an Alphabetized Word (1 of 25 techniques for creating your own NURD in POP! – which has been featured on MSNBC, BusinessWeek.com and in NY Times)

9. See Something, Say Something: Want your campaign to stay top of mind instead of be out-of-sight, out-of-mind? Put your tagline in a beat that makes it easy to repeat.

10. Yappy Hour: A Virginia Holiday Inn scaled its visibility and profitability by coining this clever name for their Friday night petworking alternative to the bark park.

So, what’s YOUR nomination for our 2011 POP! Hall of Fame?

Submit it to us at Sam@SamHorn.com by Dec. 10 with “2011 POP! Hall of Fame” in the subject line and we’ll send you the 20 Most Intriguing Quotes from 2011 just for taking the time to nominate it.

We look forward to seeing your entry.

 

That’s Intriguing #39: Announcing the POP! 2010 Hall of Fame of Top Trends, Brand Names, Book Titles and Business Slogans

“You’re either breaking out or blending in. And blending in’s for Cuisinarts.” – Sam Horn

Every year I pick the top brand names, taglines, book titles and trends that caught our attention and helped their idea, invention or organization stand out and get noticed . . . for all the right reasons.

The point? If you want to succeed, you need to stand out.

And one of the best ways to stand out is create a catchy phrase that builds buzz by turning everyone who sees it or hears it into a word-of-mouth ambassador who repeats it to others.

All of the phrases below showcase POP! techniques that are included in my book POP! which has been sold around the world (China, Europe, South America, etc.)

Hailed as one of the best business books of the year

If you have a cause, creation or company you care about – buy a copy of POP! and work through the 25 exercises that show how to coin a NURD (New Word) that helps your priority project POP! out of its pack.

1. Random Hacks of Kindness: Kudos to this worldwide gathering of tech types collaborating for the common good, and thanks to Nicholas Skytland of NASA for bringing this to my attention.

2. Stuffocating: This NURD (New Word) was coined by TV station TLC for their one hour special on the stifling impact of w-a-y too much stuff. (Not that I can relate.)

3. MEtailing: I want it and I want it my way. This online trend of letting people customize their own clothes, shoes and other products is a runaway (runway?) success.

4. Jeggings: Part jeans – part leggings. This Half & Half Word helped this product generate $180 million in sales, proving that NURDS are more than word play; they’re bottom line profits.

5. Info-besity: We live in a society stuffed with information yet we’re starving for insights.

6. Refudiate: Republican Sarah Palin’s “malaPOPism” received national media attention in which she was tweaked for her tweet where she mixed up (or did she?) “refute” and “repudiate.”

7. SHEconomy: Smart companies understand the power of the purse and are targeting this multi-billion dollar demographic. Props also to Marilynn Tanner Mobley’s BoomerHer.

8. Snowmageddon: What do you call it when 30 inches of snow are dumped on Washington DC and cause a weather apocalypse? An excellent example of Alphabetizing.

9. You Had Me at Woof: Julie Klam’s book shows how “riffing off” pop culture can provide an unexpected twist to a familiar phrase. The result? A smile and a sale.

10. SerenDestiny: I admit it. I’m partial to this since it’s the title of my next book. It’s based on the premise that leading the life we’re born to live is no accident (serendipity); it’s intentional.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Sam Horn’s POP! Create the Perfect Pitch, Title and Tagline for Anything (Perigee, Penguin ’09) introduces 25 techniques for creating compelling buisness communications and innovative, memorable messaging.

POP! has been featured on MSNBC, BusinessWeek.com and in NY Times and Sam’s presentations on this topic have received raves from Cisco, EO, National Speakers Association, ASAE, etc.

Check the more than fifty 5 Star ratings on Amazon.com from readers who sing its praises and describe how it’s helped them generate trademark-able titles and taglines, profitable business names and winning presentations that have closed deals and catapulted income.

 

That’s Intriguing #23: How to POP! Your Book Title

A client asked me on Friday, “What are the purposes behind choosing a book title that works – for all the right reasons?”

I told her, “Good question. There are 7 things we’re going for with our non-ficiton book title. A winning business or self-help book title and sub-title should:

1. Stop people in their tracks and grab their attention because it doesn’t blend in with all the other books on the shelves.

2. Address a problem you’re facing, a need you have, or a benefit you want.

3. Contain strategically selected key words that bring your title up high in online search so people “googling” that subject find your book annd website.

4. Promise real-world, actionable deliverables – what readers will stop, start or do differently as a result of reading your book.

This is why many sub-titles have metrics in them. When readers see 7 Steps, 12 Keys, 30 Days, 10 Ways; they conclude the book will give them replicable recommendations and tangible results.

5. Tease or engage readers with a NURD (new word), provocative concept or visual allusion that gets their eyebrows up and causes them to reach for the book as they think, “Hmmm, that’s interesting, I want to know more”

Think Freakonomics and Blue Ocean Strategy.

6. Feature alliteration or rhyme so the title rolls off the tongue and stays in the mind.

You can test the memorability of your title any time you want, for free. Just tell people your title and ask them to repeat it. If they can’t repeat it; they didn’t get it. And if they didn’t get it; you won’t get the sales, clients or media.

And yes, alliteration and rhyme can be annoying if overdone so run your title by your brain trust first to make sure it’s not cutesy or an over-the-top eye-roller.

7. Contain no superfluous words. As Strunk and White said, “Every word must tell.”

In fact, you may have noticed a trend in business books these days.

Many feature a one word verb.

Drive by Dan Pink

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

Nudge – Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

Sway – Ori and Rom Brafman

Roar by Kevin Daum

POP! – Sam Horn (had to throw that in)

Linchpin – Seth Godin

When you do this right, like Seth Godin did with Tribes and Malcolm Gladwell did with The Tipping Point, you coin a NURD (New Word) or an iconic cultural phrase that everyone adopts when talking about that issue and it becomes part of our vernacular.

This makes your book an evergreen because people become your word-of-mouth advertisers and keep you and your topic topc-of-mind.

As someone who has helped thousands of people craft the right title for their book, I know there is an art and science to titles and sub-titles.

In my next blog, I’ll share 3 examples of brilliant non-fiction titles and sub-titles that are paying off, big-time, for their authors and publishers.

I welcome your recommendations and submissions. What’s your favorite non-fiction title and why?