I’m still Tampa
America’s Next Great City.
The Cigar City.
The Big Guava.
I know they are not all official. And I’m sure there are more that I can’t recall right now. Leave ‘em in the comments if you know ‘em.
Cities give themselves taglines or mottos over and over and over. And of course there is a website that purports to list all city mottos, but it’s not complete.
Today marks the one year anniversary of Mayor Pam Iorio’s “I am Tampa” campaign. Other than the initial push a year ago, I’ve heard nothing other than my song contest. That’s the problem with these city slogans. There’s an official pronouncement where the media is almost obligated to cover the unveiling, and then you never hear the tagline again. Commercials on the city-run tv station station will be seen only by the twelve people who watch the channel. Local billboard ads for a few months are nice, but that is about all we get.
Jacksonville came up with a new slogan just before they hosted the Super Bowl. Can you remember it?
Baltimore’s been working on branding the city for four years now, can you tell?
Branding is much more than just a slogan. To brand your city, ads have to be run on network TV, tourism & marketing must consistently deliver the message nationwide, and the slogan should be put on every piece of official literature.
“I am Tampa” may not be the right slogan, but it doesn’t matter because no one has heard it anyway. In fact, there’s been just as much a push for the “I am Seffner” campaign.
Tags: marketing
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June 2nd, 2005 at 12:35 pm
I think more people have heard “I am Joe’s Solarplexus” than have heard of “I am Tampa”…
November 17th, 2005 at 8:48 am
[...] Of course, Harrell puts it so much better than I did. But also revealed here at Sticks of Fire was the lack of promotion for any branding attempt. There is “I am Tampa,†but with no publicity, that has gone nowhere. [...]