Meet Me at the Intersection of Branding & Poetry - 12 Resources for Public Health Organizations

If my health-related brand were a poem, what would it say? What emotions would it invoke? I had this thought while reading poetry during my morning commute. I was (pun-intended) at the intersection of poetry and branding. ​

Key Resources

Poetry and branding are linked. This isn't a new notion. Just as poets write lines and stanzas, marketers write positioning statements, taglines, and slogans. The form, punctuation, cadence, and word choice of poems can be just as strategic as the visual and verbal components of a brand's identity. Both poets and marketers use calculated methods to produce their work, and that work is open to the interpretation of each member of their audience. Both poets and marketers use expressive and figurative language, symbolism, and literary and artistic tools.  Both use visual and auditory elements in an attempt to invoke desired sentiment, thoughts, and other psychosocial associations.

​Several brands, marketers, and agencies have published articles and posts that discuss this topic and provide great examples to study:

1. Marketers at Proof discuss how they use a "branding haiku" activity with their clients' brands. The 17-syllable structure of the haiku challenges you to creatively and succinctly tell your brand story.
2. Adweek has a list of  brand poetry for National Poetry Day. The sixth example, from the television show Orphan Black, is a great example of a brand haiku. As a member of Clone Club, I can attest to how beautifully the haiku grasps everything the show embodies.
3. Adweek also provides a great summary of the Under Armor 'Unlike Any' ad campaign. For this campaign, marketers paired video of female athletes with the narration of poems by contemporary poets to tell the tale of how these athletes overcame hurdles in their lives to achieve their success. These videos are truly moving in their execution, and provide another good example of the use of poetry for marketing.
4. In the Science Direct article "Profit from poetry: Bards, brands, and burnished bottom lines", Stephen Brown and Roel Wijland examine the parallels between poetry and branding. There is some great discussion in here about the intersection of the bard and the brander.
5. In his book, Brands and Branding, Stephen Brown provides a cool task for his readers to practice their tagline-creating skills: Find lines by famous poets and insert relevant brand names.
6. Ometria's Ecommerce Brands with A Genuinely Great Tone of Voice, though not about poetry, outlines awesome examples of tone of voice, a shared component of brands and poems.
7. Virtual Farm's "Tag Lines: Advertising’s Poetry" breaks down the components of a great tagline, acknowledging how taglines, like poetry, can establish personality.
8. Audiense's "Kisses, Love Notes & Poetry: 8 Brands Seducing Customers On Social Media For Valentine’s Day" features, among many, a Valentine's Day Twitter campaign that Starbucks did in 2015. Starbucks tweeted out a few poems that aligned very well with their brand and the holiday, and were very consequently well-received by their followers.
9. The New Yorker article, "What's in a Brand Name?", explores the use of vowel and consonant sounds, accents and spelling tricks in the naming of brands to establish brand personality through phonemic associations. Sound, a staple of poetry, is just as important a part of branding and marketing.
10. This Gold Boat Journeys article shows how poetry, and more specifically haiku poems, are a great way to engage your audience in your brand and message. The travel industry has some good examples of haiku use in Poetry Month promotions. 
11. "88 College Taglines, Arranged as a Poem" provides a clear connection between taglines and poetry. It also demonstrates a distinction between the two. Branding is meant to not only establish who you are, but also why you are different and better than your competitors. These taglines miss the mark. They are very similar in word use and emotional appeal; there is no differentiation.  ​
12. Search these hashtags on Twitter to see how favorite brand(s) incorporate  #WorldPoetryDay and #HaikuPoetryDay.​​​

Key Example

An example that is top of mind to me is the Nationwide Insurance ‘Songs for All Your Sides’ ad campaign. Nationwide's tagline/jingle does so much in seven syllables: "Nationwide is on your side." The breakdown of syllables gives the line a slow rhythm, and when sung in a sweet, warm voice, it fills with the love and tenderness of a guardian angel. With this ad campaign, they've taken their jingle to the next level, using popular musicians to sing lyrics (re: poetry) about how Nationwide is there for its customers' many sides. ​

Key Takeaways

• Poetry and branding are interconnected.
• Marketers owe it to themselves to explore this connection, as it could help their brand awareness and bottom lines.
• Public health organizations and branded health communication campaigns can take a page out of the marketer's handbook on this.

Have you used poetry for a health communication, behavior change, or social marketing campaign? Share your example in the comments below.

By: Monique Thornton, MPH

About the Author

​Founder and CEO at Let's Talk Public Health. I'm a public health communication and marketing professional fusing creative writing, health communication, public health, and behavior change theory. Let's talk social and digital media, edutainment, product development, and digital health.