I have been working with political candidates for 10 years.  Part of the work I do at CampaignPros.com is to help them create a useable and attractive campaign logo.  Once a logo is created, it will be used throughout the entire campaign and should be immediately identifiable to voters.

This sounds incredibly important, but in reality, creating this logo should be simple and take up little time.  In the grand scheme of the entire campaign run, the logo will ultimately be replaced by the candidate.  Voters will be drawn to and focus on the person running.  They don’t vote for a logo.

So, the amount of time spent creating a campaign logo should be less than a day.  But, the logo should also be meaningful and unique.  This includes any slogan a candidate chooses to use.

It is my ultimate recommendation that slogans be reserved for mail pieces, business cards, hand held rally signs or radio/TV ads.  This is because the viewer has time to digest what he is reading or hearing.  Yard signs are mainly name ID pieces are should not contain extra information that would be lost because the average viewer is driving by at 30+ mph.

In any case, slogans should quickly say something about you and your purpose.  They should be a short sentence—no more than 4-5 words—or even three short, concise words (i.e. “Faith. Family. Freedom.” from Mike Huckabee).

The message of the slogan should be easy to interpret and not ambiguous.  A slogan I have seen many times over the years, used in small local campaigns, is “Fresh Voice, New Leadership.”  What does this mean?  What exactly is a fresh voice?  Couple that thought with “New Leadership” and all it says to me is “inexperienced first-timer.”  From the 3-word example above from Mike Huckabee, you instantly knew a couple of things Huckabee stood for—his belief and faith in God and his strong sentiment towards family values.  You can actually form an opinion from this.

While having a campaign slogan is not necessary, they can certainly connect a candidate to voters.  In 1980, Ronald Reagan used “Let’s Make America Great Again.”  This was a clear message sent to the incumbent that focused on the pitfalls the United States was experiencing.  Of course Americans wanted greatness again.  So, one can truly appeal to the desperate need for change.

It is hard to imagine or prove that a clever slogan has actually been the deciding factor in an election, but once again, the slogan is a direct representation of a candidate’s platform or character.

So, when choosing a campaign slogan, be clear, concise and true to its message.  Live it.  Embrace it. Portray it.