What's your logline?

Imagine this: you’re at a party making small talk with other guests and the conversation veers towards film. To your amazement, someone you’re talking to admits they’ve never seen Star Wars.

As a huge Star Wars fan you insist they watch the movie, but they’re not so sure. After all, they’ve come this far without watching it. Why start now?

So you try to pitch the movie to them. What would you say? You’d probably describe the movie based on your recollection of it and reference the Force, light sabers, Darth Vader and the Death Star.

Now imagine pitching Star Wars to a film studio without the movie being made. You’ve written the entire 200-page script but the studio chief you’re trying to impress doesn’t have the time or interest in reading 200 pages.

What do you do? The answer lies in a logline.

Loglines are succinct summaries (often just 1 sentence) of a story, used to pitch the film (or TV show) to decision makers, to help influence a favorable decision.

The purpose of a logline is to convey the central plot, main character and stakes of the story and make the decision maker want to learn more.

The logline for Star Wars would go something like this: a plucky farm boy joins a rebellion to save a princess from an evil empire and its planet-destroying weapon.

Loglines for some famous films include:

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son (The Godfather)

On board the Titanic, an engaged 17-year old aristocrat falls in love with a kind working class artist (Titanic)

A boy’s favorite cowboy doll is threatened when he’s supplanted by a spaceman action figure who believes he’s real and not a toy (Toy Story)

Although loglines are used by Hollywood writers to sell their scripts, their application can extend far beyond film.

More specifically, business communication can have a logline - whether you’re pitching for investment, conducting a business review, delivering a keynote or otherwise.

Writing a good logline is challenging but can help organize your thoughts and provide clarity on the key message that needs to be communicated to your audience in a way that leaves them wanting to learn more.

There are several components required in a good logline per the below image:

To see how how this would be applied to business, consider what Uber’s logline may have been when its founders were pitching for funding:

Through an app, a disruptive ride-hailing service connects passengers with drivers, revolutionizing urban transport and challenging traditional taxis

This logline establishes the problem, the solution and the stakes

Inciting incident: its through an app (which was revolutionary when Uber was seeking funding)

Protagonist: Uber

Objective: Revolutionize urban transport

Antagonist: Traditional taxis

This approach can even be applied to more routine business activities - e.g. quarterly business reviews.

Let’s be real: quarterly business reviews are often dense, forgettable and rarely actionable. But it doesn’t have to be that way. A logline can help synthesize the key takeaways from what happened over the past quarter. For example:

When clients shifted spend from lower to upper funnel, an ads platform added new video partners to capture brand spend as it lacked resourcing to build its own video offering.

In today’s world of constant pings, emails, phone calls and notifications, communicating with impact and clarity isn’t optional; its essential. Otherwise you risk your message being forgotten and the action you’re trying to drive won’t happen.

A well written logline will help you cut through the noise, communicate with impact and leave your audience wanting to learn more.