What the Top 100 slogans can teach us about today's market

Every year, we eagerly await the release of the Washington Technology Top 100, a ranking of the largest government contractors. Yes, we check to see who makes the list. We also then collect and analyze their taglines and slogans, to discern trends and best practices in our market.

In a few short words, taglines and slogans offer a peek at a company’s brand value, positioning, or customer promise. Viewing them as a group, as we have done for more than 15 years, we see how the GovCon elites use these precious “first impression” words and phrases to claim their space in a crowded and competitive marketplace.

This year, we reviewed the 2024 Washington Technology Top 100 slogans as a group, compared them with last year’s list, and even stacked them up against the slogan list from 10 years ago.  Here’s what we learned.

Slogans Are Slipping

Most of the Top 100 government contractors still use a slogan or tagline. In 2024, 78 of the Top 100 have one. That is down, though, from the 88 companies on last year’s list – a 10% drop in one year.

Like last year, nine of the top 10 companies have a tagline or slogan, so there’s no change at the very top.

Of the 89 companies returning to the Top 100 from 2023, 79% are using a tagline or slogan this year, closely mirroring the overall list. Eight out of the 11 new companies have one. 

We looked at the 19 returning companies that have no slogans. Ten of them didn’t have slogans in 2023 either. Nine, though, dropped what they were using a year ago – and didn’t introduce a new one this year.

Short is Chic

One of the great challenges to creating a compelling tagline or slogan is to get your point across in just a few words. Yet the payoff is great. Short is memorable. Short is focused. And, apparently, short is chic. An impressive 77% of companies with a slogan fit their core message into five words or fewer.

In fact, nine companies whittled down their slogan to just two words, including four companies that rank in the top 10:

• Northrop Grumman | Defining Possible
• Booz Allen Hamilton | Transforming Tomorrow
• L3Harris Technologies | Fast. Forward.
• CACI International | EVER VIGILANT

These Few Words Are Enough

Across the Top 100, most slogans are three, four, or five words. In 2024, 65% of companies with slogans were in that word count range, up from 58% last year. A company can say a lot in just a few words.

You can convey a company’s brand value:

• Four Inc. | We get IT done.
• Michael Baker Corp. | We Make a Difference
• Torch Technologies Inc. | Lighting the Pathway of Freedom

A short tagline or slogan can help position a company:

• KBR Inc. | Delivering Solutions, Changing the World.
• EY | Building a better working world
• Bechtel Group | Extraordinary teams building inspiring projects.

Even a customer promise can be presented in just a few words:

• SMX (formerly, Smartronix) | Shared Vision. Outcome Assured.
• CGI Federal | Insights you can act on
• Leonardo DRS | Our Agility. Your Advantage.

Of course, a tagline or slogan can simply inspire:

• NTT DATA Federal Services | Ignite Tomorrow … today.
• Peraton | Do The Can't Be Done.
• SAIC| Bring On Tomorrow.

A Decade of Stability (But Not Stagnation)

In his Trends driving today’s Top 100 readers’ guide, Washington Technology editor-in-chief Nick Wakeman shared this insight: “Leidos is company No. 1 for the eighth straight year (and longer if you count its Lockheed Martin heritage), but the stability at the top should not be mistaken for stagnation.”

That observation prompted us to look at the Top 100 from 10 years ago, to see what’s changed (and what hasn’t). We found a whopping 62 companies (or predecessors) on the 2024 list were also on the list in 2014.

Companies appearing on both lists included many that have not changed their name in 10 years (even if there were spin-offs, mergers, or acquisitions over that period). Some of these companies are:

• BAE Systems
• IBM
• Lockheed Martin
• Boeing
• Carahsoft Technology Corp.
• Dell
• ICF International

Some have adjusted their names since 2014, including:

• HP Inc. was Hewlett-Packard
• ASRC was Arctic Slope Regional Corp.
• CDW•G was CDW Government
• Red River Technology was Red River Computer Company

Numerous companies on the 2024 list now include other companies from the 2014 list, including:

• L3 Harris: Was created from the combination of L-3 Communications and Harris Corp, both of which were on the 2014 list
• RTX: Includes Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, and United Technologies, all of which appeared in 2014
• AECOM: Appeared as AECOM Technology Corp. in 2014 – along with URS Corp, which it acquired in 2014
• Amentum (a spin-out of AECOM’s federal services in 2020 that will soon merge with the government technology business of Jacobs): Did not appear on the 2014 list, as it wasn’t formed until 2020. It has since acquired DynCorp International and PAE Group – both of which appeared on the 2014 list
• HII (formerly, Huntington Ingalls Industries): Appeared on the 2014 list with Camber Corp., which it later acquired

A peek at the slogans of the 62 repeating companies shows:

• In 2024, 51 out of 62 have a slogan
• That’s up slightly from 47 companies (or their predecessors) that had a slogan in 2014

Shifting Sentiment

The biggest shift in slogans over the past 10 years is the word choice. In his article, Nick mentioned that space is big among the largest contractors in the market. It’s a word that, not surprisingly, has started to show up in slogans, too. Two companies refer to space in their 2024 slogans. It’s in the new RTX slogan (mentioned above) and here:

• SES Space & Defense | Your Space Partner

Pulling back to a 10,000-foot view, we looked at the top words being used in 2024 slogans.

• World is tops, appearing 12 times
• We is used seven times
• Solutions appears six times
• Both IT and Our appear five times
• Better, Building, Delivering, Make, and Tomorrow all show up four times

A glance at the word cloud portrays a world where we build and deliver our IT solutions for a better tomorrow.

Now, a look at 2014.

• Better, World, and Solutions were still top words
• Technology was the word of the day, rather than IT
• Instead of Building or Delivering, the focus was on Performance and Results
• And, perhaps a sign of the times, instead of focusing on We and Our, companies in 2014 put Your and the Customer first

And Then There Was One

One of the delights of reviewing top GovCon slogans over the years is to see the changes from one year to the next. Most companies have changed their taglines to keep up with the times or better reflect who they are evolving into. Perhaps more impressive is seeing the taglines that stand the test of time.

This is a milestone year. After seeing a dwindling list of companies who have retained their taglines over the past 15+ years, Abt Associates rebranded to Abt Global this year, introducing a new logo and dropping its long-standing slogan (Bold Thinkers Driving Real-World Impact).

That leaves just one. CACI International has certainly evolved with the times, yet its powerful two-word tagline remains: EVER VIGILANT.

A tip of the hat to CACI for not messing with perfection.

Click here to download the full list of government contractor slogans.

Joyce Bosc is president and CEO of Boscobel Marketing Communications, Inc.