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How prepared are you for a real emergency? We thought so. The American Red Cross wanted a campaign that would get folks off their collective tush, without scolding or shaming them (rarely successful tactics). Like an emergency response team, we sprang into action, helping with communication architectures and creating hundreds of taglines for their campaign. This one became their rallying cry.

The Asian American Civic Association (AACA) went way beyond standard ESL services for immigrants. They offered job training, social services, even childcare. Their tagline needed to communicate all that, both internally and externally, and be understood by people with limited English. We consider taglines the haikus of marketing copy: short, sweet, and so satisfying when you get them right. This one was no exception.

A tagline gives you an opportunity to fill in messaging gaps a brand name might miss. HireRight’s old tagline, “Hire Safe. Hire Smart. HireRight.” simply echoed the message already inherent in their brand name. Our new tagline went further, conveying the company’s dynamism and thoughtfulness, as well as their key differentiator: superior background checks yielding accurate, actionable data.

The very first instant-messaging company, ICQ had morphed into a one-stop shop for connecting people. Text messaging, video, voice, mobile phone: you name it, they did it. Their tagline needed to appeal to their youthful base, yet be simple enough for a global audience. This tagline had a powerful message that got right to the heart of the brand: limitless personal connections. “Everybody, everywhere.” Couldn’t get simpler.

Purigen Bio approached Catchword to develop a name for its unique, and truly revolutionary, automated approach to prepping and purifying biological samples. The technology, Isotachophoresis (ITP), uses an electric current to not only separate the target molecules from the rest of the sample, but concentrate and focus them as well. The new name, Ionic, speaks to the process by which the technology moves the target molecules to an isolated location between the two sets of electrolytes, into what the company refers to as the ITP zone. Catchword also developed the company’s new tagline “Pure & Simple.” to highlight both the enhanced biological output and the system’s ease of use.

The Nature Conservancy already had a pretty good tagline: Saving the Last Great Places. But they needed something more specific. We explored variants, as well as new themes. Adding “on Earth” to the old tagline anchored it in the natural world, and gave it urgency and heft. We’ll typically develop many hundreds of taglines before we even think about selection. This project ran true to form.

Data, data everywhere … but what do you make of it all? And more importantly, how do you make the most of it? OSIsoft’s PI system is the industry standard in enterprise infrastructure for managing real-time data and events. Its 2012 conference was designed to help the system’s users make the most of the technology, as this tagline made clear.

PSI Services, which has been delivering testing programs to help people achieve success for more than 70 years, asked Catchword to develop a company tagline as well as names for several new products. The tagline needed to express the company’s core business while resonating with the company’s varied customers: students, job seekers, academic institutions, and employers. PSI ultimately chose two of our candidates, one to be used as a traditional tagline with the company logo, and one as a site headline. The double meaning of “Testing Excellence” makes it clear that PSI both assesses qualifications and provides premium testing technology. “Where People Meet Potential” is a great summary of the company and now headlines the site’s About Us page.

PSI Services, which has been delivering testing programs to help people achieve success for more than 70 years, asked Catchword to develop a company tagline as well as names for several new products. The tagline needed to express the company’s core business while resonating with the company’s varied customers: students, job seekers, academic institutions, and employers. PSI ultimately chose two of our candidates, one to be used as a traditional tagline with the company logo, and one as a site headline. “Where People Meet Potential” (the headline on the company’s About page) expresses multiple meanings in one: PSI is the place where human resources and potential come together and where people are expected to, and enabled to, realize their potential.

Director Vicki Abeles wanted to ignite a national conversation with her documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren, and their steep cost. She asked us to create a title and tagline that would get people talking. Sounding overly preachy or tragic would be a turnoff; the key was to suggest a gripping story. Our solution, Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture, got attention. The New York Times dubbed the film “a must-see,” and screenings around the country helped launch a grassroots movement.

Not all kids’ pajamas are created equal. If they’re flame retardant, they’re probably not very comfortable. And if they’re untreated, loose-fitting cotton, they’re probably not very safe. Securest (a leader in flame-retardant clothing and a brand name we created) had invented a technology that let fabrics be both comfortable and safe. Our tagline made that clear. Sweet dreams.

Spalding asked us to develop a tagline for their company. Key to their positioning was the notion that Spalding products perform exactly as they should. Basketballs have the touch you’d expect. Soccer balls float like they should. Volleyballs do whatever volleyballs are supposed to do. In other words, Spalding creates products that are authentic and true to the game. Swish.

The tagline has been a huge success. It perfectly sums up the company’s ethos, and appears as a lockup with the brand name on the company’s sporting goods, athletic apparel, website, and more. It’s inspired site copy (“We were true to the game before the game was invented.”), campaigns (“#TrueBelievers Are True to the Game”), and even a sweepstakes name. Swish, indeed.

While consumers have many options for streaming music nowadays, most subscription-based services are focused solely on delivering as much music as possible, and provide little opportunity for artists and fans to interact in truly meaningful ways. Ursa, the name Catchword developed for an exciting new music engagement “ecosystem,” speaks to a constellation of streaming services and connecting in countless ways (features, music, people, etc.). It also recalls the major and minor scales (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), and evokes an otherworldly music streaming platform.

Catchword was engaged by CBRE to develop a name for one of the commercial real estate investment firm’s newest ventures: a highly flexible, WeWork-style workspace, including configurable team suites, on-demand meeting rooms, and co-working spaces. Once CBRE had landed on a name for the new workspace (Hana), they asked us to imagine a catchy tagline for the brand. Suggesting wonderful working environments and imaginatively designed spaces, as well as productivity and business growth, we proposed Work Wonders, a compact, clever, and pleasantly alliteratively double-entendre.

After we named Zillio, a new type of math game for kids that was as fun as it was educational, we needed a tagline in the same playful spirit. Besides being engaging, the game was incredibly versatile; it helped kids learn everything from multiplication to algebra. The tagline, which played off the product name and reinforced it, was a natural.