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Keith McCord ReportingIf you had to describe the state of Utah to someone who had never visited here before, what would you say? And how might you entice them to come here? That's the challenge of the Utah Office of Tourism, which is in the process of creating a new ad campaign to promote Utah's "brand".
For the past few months the Utah Office of Tourism, armed with video, has been going around the country, and even visited a few international cities, to ask folks to express their opinions-- good and bad--about Utah. The goal is to come up with a new marketing strategy to promote our state in a new way.
Leigh von der Esch, Managing Dir. Utah Office of Tourism: "We have a brand that we're trying to bring forward. We're known, obviously for our outdoors, but our identity beyond the outdoors and what we can do recreationally we're trying to pull out as well."
It's a daunting task. After all, how do you come up with a slogan and advertising campaign about Utah that not only conveys what's here, but also what it feels like? People in focus groups had many words to describe Utah.
"Surprise, awe, majestic, serene, nurturing."
Promoting Utah was one of the governor's priorities, and as a result, the annual tourism ad budget went from $900,000 a year ago, to $10-million now! It's a golden opportunity to create a brand that resonates around the world.
Leigh von der Esch, Managing Dir. Utah Office of Tourism: "Like Nike has a brand, 'Just do it', tells you to go to Nike. And we have a great product, the problem is you cannot put enough words into a slogan to capture what we have in Utah."
After shopping all the concepts around the country and the world, they'll narrow it all down come up with one slogan, and a new image for Utah's brand and they'll unveil it in February of 2006.
The tourism office is aiming at February 8th to unveil the new image campaign, the fourth anniversary of the start of the 2002 Olympics, a time when Utah was indeed known around the world.
