44 CREATE THE STORY
New iPod Player Puts ‘1,000 Songs in Your Pocket.’ ”^12 Apple’s
headline was memorable because it meets three criteria: it is con-
cise (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