Steve Jobs (11 page)

demo, and repeats the headline immediately upon ending the

explanation.

For example, here is how Jobs introduced GarageBand for the

first time: “Today we’re announcing something so cool: a fifth

app that will be part of the iLife family. Its name is GarageBand.

What is GarageBand? GarageBand is a major new pro music

tool. But it’s for everyone.
”9 J
obs’s slide mirrored the headline.

When he announced the headline for GarageBand, the slide on

the screen read: “GarageBand. A major new pro music tool.” Jobs

followed the headline with a longer, one-sentence description of

the product. “What it does is turn your Mac into a pro-quality

musical instrument and complete recording studio,” Jobs told

the audience. This is typical Jobs method for introducing a

product. He reveals the headline, expands on it, and hammers it

home again and again.

The Excitement of the Internet,

the Simplicity of Macintosh

The original iMac (the “i” stood for Internet) made getting on the

Web easier than ever. The customer had to go through only two

steps to connect to the Internet. (“There’s no step three,” actor

Jeff Goldblum declared in one popular ad.) The introduction

CREATE TWIT TERLIKE HEADLINES
43

captured the imagination of the computer industry in 1998 and

was one of the most influential computer announcements of the

decade. According to Macworld.com, the iMac redeemed Steve

Jobs, who had returned to Apple in 1997, and it saved Apple

itself at a time when the media had pronounced the company

all but dead. Jobs had to create excitement about a product that

threw some common assumptions out the window—the iMac

shipped with no floppy drive, a bold move at the time and a

decision met with considerable skepticism.

“iMac combines the excitement of the Internet with the sim-

plicity of Macintosh,” Jobs said as he introduced the computer.

The slide on the screen behind Jobs read simply: “iMac. The

excitement of the Internet. The simplicity of Macintosh.” Jobs

then explained whom the computer was created to attract: con-

sumers and students who wanted to get on the Internet “simply

and fast.
”10

The headlines Steve Jobs creates work effectively because

they are written from the perspective of the user. They answer

the question, Why should I care? (See Scene 2.) Why should you

care about the iMac? Because it lets you experience “the excite-

ment of the Internet with the simplicity of Macintosh.”

One Thousand Songs in Your Pocket

Apple is responsible for one of the greatest product headlines

of all time. According to author Leander Kahney, Jobs himself

settled on the description for the original iPod. On October 23,

2001, Jobs could have said, “Today we’re introducing a new,

ultraportable MP3 player with a 6.5-ounce design and a 5 GB

hard drive, complete with Apple’s legendary ease of use.” Of

course, Jobs did not say it quite that way. He simply said, “iPod.

One thousand songs in your pocket.
”11
No one could describe it better in more concise language. One thousand songs that could

fit in your pocket. What else is there to say? One sentence tells

the story and also answers the question, Why should I care?

Many reporters covering the event used the description in

the headline to their articles. Matthew Fordahl’s headline in the

Associated Press on the day of the announcement read, “Apple’s

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CREATE THE STORY

New iPod Player Puts ‘1,000 Songs in Your Pocket.’
”12 App
le’s headline was memorable because it meets three criteria: it is
concise
(twenty-seven characters), it is
specific
(one thousand songs), and it offers a
personal benefit
(
you
can carry the songs in your pocket).

Following are some other examples of Apple headlines that

meet all three criteria. Although some of these are slightly lon-

ger than ten words, they can fit in a Twitter post:

 ”The new iTunes store. All songs are DRM-free.” (Changes to

iTunes music store, January 2009)

 ”The industry’s greenest notebooks.” (New MacBook family of

computers, introduced in October 2008)

 ”The world’s most popular music player made even better.”

(Introduction of the fourth-generation iPod nano, September

2008)

 ”iPhone 3G. Twice as fast at half the price.” (Introduction of

iPhone 3G, July 2008)

 ”It gives Mac users more reasons to love their Mac and PC users

more reasons to switch.” (Introduction of iLife ‘08, announced

July 2007)

 ”Apple reinvents the phone.” (Introduction of iPhone, January

2007)

 ”The speed and screen of a professional desktop system in the

world’s best notebook design.” (Introduction of the seventeen-

inch MacBook Pro, April 2006)

 ”The fastest browser on the Mac and many will feel it’s the best

browser ever created.” (Unveiling of Safari, January 2003)

Keynote Beats PowerPoint in

the Battle of the Headlines

Microsoft’s PowerPoint has one big advantage over Apple’s

Keynote presentation software—it’s everywhere. Microsoft com-

mands 90 percent of the computing market, and among the

10 percent of computer users on a Macintosh, many still use

CREATE TWIT TERLIKE HEADLINES
45

Headlines That Changed the World

When the “Google guys,” Sergey Brin and Larry Page, walked

into Sequoia Capital to seek funding for their new search-

engine technology, they described their company in one

sentence: “Google provides access to the world’s informa-

tion in one click.” That’s sixty-three characters, ten words. An

early investor in Google told me that with those ten words,

the investors immediately understood the implications of

Google’s technology. Since that day, entrepreneurs who walk

into Sequoia Capital have been asked for their “one-liner,” a

headline that describes the product in a single sentence. As

one investor told me, “If you cannot describe what you do in

ten words or less, I’m not investing, I’m not buying, I’m not

interested. Period.” Following are some more examples of

world-changing headlines that are ten words or less:

 ”Cisco changes the way we live, work, play, and learn.”—Cisco

CEO John Chambers, who repeats this line in interviews and

presentations

 ”Starbucks creates a third place between work and home.”

—Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, describing his idea to early

investors

 ”We see a PC on every desk, in every home.”—Microsoft

co-founder Bill Gates, expressing his vision to Steve Ballmer,

who, shortly after joining the company, was second-

guessing his decision. Ballmer, currently Microsoft’s CEO,

said Gates’s vision convinced him to stick it out. With a per-

sonal net worth of $15 billion, Ballmer is glad he did.

PowerPoint software designed for Macs. While the actual num-

bers of presentations conducted on PowerPoint versus Keynote

are not publicly available, it’s safe to say that the number of

Keynote presentations given daily is minuscule in comparison

with PowerPoint. Although most presentation designers who

46
CREATE THE STORY

are familiar with both formats prefer to work in the more ele-

gant Keynote system, those same designers will tell you that the

majority of their client work is done in PowerPoint.

As I mentioned in Scene 1, this book is software agnostic

because all of the techniques apply equally to PowerPoint or

Keynote. That said, Keynote is still the application that Steve Jobs

prefers, and the Twitter-like headline he created to introduce the

software was certainly an attention grabber. “This is another

brand-new application that we are announcing here today, and

it is called Keynote,” Jobs told the audience at Macworld 2003.

Then:

Keynote is a presentation app for when your presentation

really counts [slide reads: “When your presentation really

counts”]. And Keynote was built for me [slide reads: “Built

for me”]. I needed an application to build the kind of slide

show that I wanted to show you at these Macworld keynotes:

very graphics intensive. We built this for me; now I want to

share it with you. We hired a low-paid beta tester to beta test

this app for an entire year, and here he is [audience laughs

as screen shows photo of Jobs]. Rather than a bunch of slides

about slides, let me just show you [walks to stage right to

demo the new software]
.13

Again, we see a remarkable consistency in all of Apple’s mar-

keting material surrounding the new product launch. The Apple

press release for Keynote described it as “The application to use

when your presentation really counts.
”14 T
his headline can easily fit in a Twitter post and, without revealing the details, tells

a story in one sentence. A customer who wanted more details

could read the press release, watch Jobs’s demonstration, or view

the online demo on Apple’s website. Still, the headline itself

offered plenty of information. We learned that it was a new

application specifically for presentations and made for those

times when presentations can make or break your career. As a

bonus, it was built for Jobs. For many people who give frequent

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47

presentations, that headline was enough to pique their interest

and give the software a try.

Journalists learn to write headlines on the first day of

J-school. Headlines are what persuade you to read particular

stories in newspapers, magazines, or blogs. Headlines matter. As

individuals become their own copywriters for blogs, presenta-

tions, Twitter posts, and marketing material, learning to write

catchy, descriptive headlines becomes even more important to

professional success.

D IR EC TO R ’ S N OT E S

 Create your headline, a one-sentence vision statement

for your company, product, or service. The most effec-

tive headlines are concise (140 characters maximum), are

specific, and offer a personal benefit.

 Consistently repeat the headline in your conversations

and marketing material: presentations, slides, brochures,

collateral, press releases, website.

 Remember, your headline is a statement that offers your