Sydney: Designed to Inspire

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Originally uploaded by MeowCely

What do you get when you mix 'Glasgow: Scotland with style' and 'Edinburgh Inspiring Capital?'

Answer: A themed $1.2 million marketing campaign to attract tourists to Sydney under the tagline 'Sydney: Designed to Inspire'.

New South Wales Tourism Minister Matt Brown says the campaign involves newspaper and television advertisements as well as a website to encourage visitors.

"This sort of money is well spent," he said.

But didn't the NSW Tourism Minister, Matt Brown, announced last September that the slogan for Sydney would become "City of Celebrations".

Has Sydney become 'Sydney: City of Slogans & mixed messages'. While wasting taxpayers money.

I believe Matt Brown should listen to Paul O’Connor, Executive Director of World Business Chicago, who said it best:

“The greatest piece of advice I can give to other cities is to accept taglines only as a last resort. A tagline passes for branding, but it is not the same thing. Taglines are fragile, limited or too broad. They do not represent who you really are. A brand is the DNA of a place, what it is made of, what it passes from generation to generation. It is authentic and indicates what makes a place different from others.”

Designed to inspire sounds good...so good that the marketing team at the Museum Victoria is using the same tagline on their ongoing program of exhibitions, forums and events to celebrate Victorian, Australian and international design.

Please people...branding is more than a tagline!