From Brief to Battle Cry: Write Your Own Campaign Rallying Call

From Brief to Battle Cry: Write Your Own Campaign Rallying Call

You've spent this course inside Tim McClure's creative mind — watching how he turned a litter problem into a cultural movement, how he found the soul of Southwest Airlines on a single flight to Dallas, and how he built campaigns that didn't just sell things but meant something.

Now it's your turn.

This exercise walks you through the exact same creative process Tim used on Don't Mess with Texas. Not a watered-down version. The real thing. You'll take a real brief, throw out the obvious answer, dig for the emotional truth, and write a line that mobilizes people rather than merely describes a product.

---

Setup

Choose your brief. Pick ONE of the following scenarios — or use a real brief you're currently working on:

• Option A: A regional gym chain struggling with January sign-ups that don't stick past February
• Option B: A local credit union trying to compete against big national banks
• Option C: A state parks system trying to get families off their screens and back outdoors
• Option D: Your own client brief (keep it to one paragraph summary)

Write your chosen brief at the top of a blank page or doc. Keep it simple — one paragraph max.

---

Instructions

Work through these five steps in order. Don't skip ahead. The sequence matters.

Step 1: State the obvious answer (then throw it out)

Write the first tagline or campaign idea that comes to mind for your brief. The safe one. The one a committee would approve without blinking. Write it down — then cross it out. This is your "before" benchmark. Tim's version of this for Don't Mess with Texas would have been something like "Keep Texas Beautiful." Perfectly fine. Completely forgettable.

Step 2: Reframe the problem

Ask yourself: What is this brief actually about? Not the product. Not the feature. The human behavior underneath it.

The gym brief isn't about fitness — it's about people who want to change but don't believe they will. The credit union brief isn't about interest rates — it's about people who feel like the system isn't built for them. Write one sentence that reframes your brief as a human truth.

Tim didn't ask "How do we reduce litter?" He asked "Why do Texans litter in the first place — and what do they care about more than anything?" That reframe changed everything.

Step 3: Find the identity hook

Battle cries don't sell products. They reflect people back to themselves at their best. Ask: Who does my audience want to be? What do they take pride in? What shared value or identity can this campaign tap into?

Write down three identity statements your audience holds about themselves. Start each one with "I'm the kind of person who..."

Now look for the one that connects most directly to your reframed problem.

Step 4: Write five battle cry attempts

Using your identity hook as the emotional foundation, write five different lines. Push yourself — the first two will probably still be safe. The third might get interesting. The fourth or fifth is where the real thing often lives.

A battle cry should:

• Feel like something people would say, not just read
• Tap into pride, identity, or shared values — not product benefits
• Be short enough to remember and strong enough to repeat
• Make the audience the hero, not the brand

Step 5: Choose your line and defend it

Pick the one line you believe in most. Then write two to three sentences explaining why — not why it's clever, but why it's true. What human insight does it rest on? What would it make people feel about themselves?

This is the courage part. Tim says the best lines feel inevitable in hindsight but require real commitment in the moment. Pick the one that scares you a little.

---

Expected Outcome

By the end of this exercise, you'll have:

• A written reframe of your brief that goes deeper than the surface problem
• A clearly identified emotional truth and identity hook
• Five battle cry attempts with one chosen line
• A short written defense of why your line is true — not just catchy

Don't judge your line against Don't Mess with Texas on your first try. Tim had decades of observation, a deep personal connection to Texas culture, and the courage of a team that had nothing to lose. What you're building here is the muscle — the habit of digging past the obvious answer until you find the line that actually means something.

That's the whole game. That's what Tim McClure has been doing since 1971.

Now go find your battle cry.