In doing so, the paper is using what may be a new tagline: "News that's real."
Now, that line may have been deployed just for this sweepstakes. Or, as some Gannett Bloggers have speculated, perhaps it's a replacement for the "What America Wants" line the paper introduced in May 2010 under its previous marketing director.
A change would hardly be surprising, of course. Last June, Gannett's top brand got a new marketing director, Sandra Micek -- a protege of Corporate's Chief Marketing Officer, Maryam Banikarim. Together, they may have refashioned USAT's message.
Still, it's worth noting that "What America Wants" remains on the paper's media kit page.
Pop quiz!
Identify the tagline that preceded "What America Wants." (Answer in the comments section, below.)
The tagline that preceded "What America Wants" was, "We're all in this together," introduced in March 2008.
ReplyDeleteA related fun factoid: I recently noticed that Virgin America has been using "we're all in this together" to encourage frequent handwashing in restrooms to prevent the spread of germs.
As an employee can I enter?
ReplyDeleteThe Arizona Republic tagline has been this for many years.
ReplyDeleteIf it's news, it's news to us !
Maybe "News that's real" is an attempt to combat lingering perceptions from the Jack Kelley days?
ReplyDeleteA much earlier USAT tagline apparently is too elegant for the 21st century. Does anyone remember this one?
ReplyDelete"An economy of words. A wealth of information."
Now, I can't get Sylvester's song -- "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" -- out of my head:
ReplyDeleteYou mean I've been dancin' on the floor darlin'
And I feel like I need some more and I
Feel your body close to mine and I
Move on love it's about that time
Make me feel - mighty real
Make me feel - mighty real
You make me feel mighty real
You make me feel mighty real
When we get home darlin' and it's
Nice and dark and the music's in Vienna
Still your hot and you kiss me back and it
Feels real good and I know you love me
Like you should
Oh you make me feel mighty real
You make me feel mighty real
Make me feel - mighty real
Make me feel - mighty real
Make me feel - mighty real
Make me feel - mighty real
I feel real
I feel real,
I feel real
I feel real
I feel real
I feel real,
I feel real
I feel real
Huh
I feel real
I feel real,
I feel real
I feel real
Huh I feel real,
huh I feel real
I feel real
I feel real,
I feel real
I feel real
You make me feel mighty real
You make me feel mighty real
Oh you make me feel mighty real
You make me feel mighty real
Alternate tagline "All the sh*t that's fit to print."
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of the list of people who I want to recite lyrics, Jim Hopkins is not among them.
ReplyDeleteWe used to want to use...."Lotsa pictures; no big words".
ReplyDeleteA world of different voices, where freedom squeaks
ReplyDeleteIs that the correct of higher-class blue? It looks a lot like the blue we used a year ago before the last update.
ReplyDeleteSecond question. If Your Life is just as important as Life, in all of its AOL-retread awesomeness, shouldn't there be a pink stripe on there?
Maybe change up that tagline to "News that's real good!"
Last question - are we giving away the iPads that were supposed to be for journalists, to our facebook friends?
And this is what USAT's leaders deem as important -- marketing gimmicks? This and hiring more people with even bigger titles, I guess, is the new norm at the once-proud newspaper. The drop off in quality at the nation's newspaper is in decline, I am guessing because of a talent depletion (like at many newspapers), and all I read about on this blog is how USAT is doing everything imaginable except restoring some serious credibility to its news reports -- online, in print, wherever. Marketing and slogans and alike once served USAT fairly well, but it wasn't at the expense of having a solid group of people, from top to bottom, who knew what they were doing and loved the business. Now, from what I hear and read, USAT is morphing into some sort of bare-bones news hybrid, run by people who really don't give a damn about credibility, accuracy, integrity...just like the smaller Gannett papers have been doing for years. People wanting "real" news shouldn't bother with USAT. I think in time that will become apparent to the public and you'll see further declines at this once iconic brand. Again, not saying USAT is alone in this new approach to running a news product, but it certainly has more to lose than most and has done a great job of shooting itself in the foot on a regular basis in recent years. As my best friend who worked there for awhile said, it's become a soulless place for entry-level people to get a bit of experience before moving on, often to other non-news organizations. When you fire competent, loyal people and replace them with folks with no roots in journalism, what do you expect?
ReplyDelete"News that's real" ... as opposed to "News that isn't real" I suppose? Interesting, if it is a new marketing tagline, what is USA Today saying? That other news sources don't have "real" news? Now that USA Today is a shadow of its former self in terms of content, I don't see how it can make that case.
ReplyDeleteMaryam and Sandra probably wrote this lame tagline themselves. Everyone else from USAT marketing has left or been fired.
ReplyDeleteReally embarrassing for a newspaper to say "News that's Real". As opposed to "News that's Made UP?"
This is the best that the genius and overpaid Banikarim and Micek can come up with? Whoever posted UNI Today? I like that better.
ReplyDeleteIt still beats that lousy "all within reach" crap that Robin Pence and Ed Cassidy concocted.
News for real. As opposed to made up.
ReplyDeleteAlternate tagline "All the sh*t that's fit to print."
ReplyDeleteAnother:
All the sh*t that'll fit.
Don't quit your day job, 5:41. That was dumb.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping that is not a tagline. The marketplace will laugh us out of business. NYT and WSJ will laugh the hardest.
ReplyDelete"News that's Real." It doesn't even work on FB. Just horrible.
Isn't ALL news supposed to be Real?
Unless we are competing with OK magazine.
1:44 amen.
ReplyDeletePeople wanting "real" news shouldn't bother with USAT.
Further declines at this once iconic brand.
I'm confused. The sweeps link doesn't work, and the prize is pretty weak.
ReplyDelete2:25 is correct. I've now clicked on several links that USAT provides for the contest, and they all lead to a page that says:
ReplyDelete"Oops, we're sorry. The page you requested was not found."
That was either a very short-lived contest (seems unlikely) or there's a glitch.
That would follow the paper's acknowledgement earlier that it was looking into a report that there was a problem with the "like" feature on the contest page.
I wonder if anyone at USAT knows about this latest problem?
NEAR MISSES…
ReplyDelete5. “Your ads in good hands with Gannett’s GPC’s.”
4. “Your newspaper, the real quicker picker-upper.”
3. “Just Read Us. Please”
2. “Advertisers wanted.”
1. “Don’t Google it, GANNOOGLE it”
Well, as they say....when you don't have the steak, sell the sizzle. And now we can't even do that properly.
ReplyDeleteThese are the most incompetent marketing people I have ever been associated with. No wonder their previous companies fired them.