Is Metro PCS’s slogan good or bad?

The best part about New York is the advertising. I was sitting in some deli near Times Square (yes, I’m still acting like a tourist), and listening to the radio play the background. After some Top 40 pop, the ads came on. The first one was for a cell phone company, Metro PCS, and was the first time I heard their new slogan: “everybody’s moving to Metro.”

While on the surface the slogan might read like something just sort of thrown in at the end of a commercial, I actually think there’s some science behind it.

Sure Metro, everyone’s moving to you.

Imagine what would have to happen for you to think their slogan naturally; you’d need to be shopping around for cellphone service enough that you were talking to your friends about who they use and why, plus the majority of your friends would have to actually be moving to Metro PCS, unlikely since their not even in the top five cellphone providers.

But Metro did something different. Now, you hear the ad and the slogan and though you may not think about it, it’s in your brain. If you were shopping for cell phone service and somebody said they were moving to Metro PCS, you’re much more likely now to think of the slogan again, and thanks to confirmation bias, the psychological principle that says we’re more likely to see something after we make a  conscious note to look for it, you’ll start noticing more people using Metro than you did before, possibly even more often than the larger providers.

I bet they all use the PCS.

Since Metro uses outdated ad tracking technology and radio ads it’s going to be hard to tell if this campaign is successful, but Metro PCS is a public company (NYSE: PCS), so I’ll get back to you on whether their earnings went up between the last two quarters or not. Yeah, it’s a terrible way to judge an ad’s effectiveness, but it’s better than nothing.

What was the last slogan that really stuck with you?

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.