How to Wow ‘Em Like Steve Jobs

Apple Computer, now celebrating 30 years of innovation, has revolutionized the way we use computers and listen to music. Now its charismatic co-founder, Steve Jobs, has transformed the corporate pitch…

 1.  Sell the benefit

2.  Practice, practice, practice

3.  Keep it visual

4.  Exude Passion, Energy, and Enthusiasm

5.  "And one more thing…"

You may be asking what this has to do with Free Culture.  The challenge that Free Culture has always faced is the soundbite or, more generally, the presentation of the message.  A great place to look for advice is among the innovators of technology.  Learning from people like Steve Jobs and other technological leaders who have been able to boil down their product to a slogan.  Take a look at some of these from Wikipedia:

• "Multimedia You Can Use" ~ Apple Computer, 1990s
• "Once you go Mac. You'll never go back" ~ Apple Computer
• "Play More" ~ Xbox 360
• "Power is Macintosh" ~ Apple Computer, 1990s
• "Rip. Mix. Burn" ~ Apple Computer
• "So powerful, it's kind of ridiculous" ~ 3dfx (for Voodoo 3 cards)
• "The Network is the Computer." ~ Sun Microsystems
• "The power to be your best" ~ Apple Computer, 1990s
• "Think" ~ IBM, 1914
• "Think different" ~ Apple Computer, Chiat/Day, 1998–
• "Think outside the box" ~ Apple Computer, 1990s
• "Welcome to the World Wide Wow" ~ AOL (play on World Wide Web)
• "Where do you want to go today?" ~ Microsoft, 1996
• "Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia" ~ Wikipedia
• "Your Potential. Our Passion. Microsoft." ~ Microsoft
• "The Browser You Can Trust" + "Rediscover the Web" + "The browser, reloaded" ~ Firefox,Mozilla 2004-present

It surely doesn't cover everything, but what Free Culture needs is to rally around the underlying principle of freedom and to form a non-technical message that reflects the principle.