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Omaha boosters have a new slogan - 'O!'
BY C. DAVID KOTOK
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Omaha's new slogan is a sound.
O!
Really. That's it: O!
And that O! is going to start popping up everywhere in the coming weeks
as the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Omaha Convention and
Visitors Bureau, the City of Omaha and others try to stir up some
excitement for the city.
Six months after the guardians of Omaha's image stuck a fork in the
slogan no one liked - "Omaha: Rare, Well Done" - they apparently
decided Omaha's essence could not be captured in a few words.
Their carefully guarded secret of the new city icon, O!, surfaced early
in a Time magazine item poking fun at city slogans.
Time noted that Las Vegas wasn't quite escaping its unofficial "Sin
City" moniker with its new slogan, "What happens here stays here."
Omaha found itself listed between Manhattan, Kan., "The Little Apple,"
and Hereford, Texas, "Town Without a Toothache."
Linda Lovgren, an Omaha advertising company owner and chamber
chairwoman, said she did not know how Time learned of O!
The plan is to use the slogan first "as part of a tease campaign,"
Lovgren said, to both create excitement among Omahans and in tourism
promotion.
Lovgren, Sonny Mares of the Convention and Visitors Bureau and Pete
Festersen of the Mayor's Office said this is the first time there has
been a coordinated effort to promote the city.
"This is a chance to change and enhance the perception of Omaha,"
Festersen said.
Mares said the committee working on replacing the "Rare. Well done"
slogan rejected a wordy replacement.
"This isn't a slogan," Mares said. "It's a mark."
Lovgren called it an icon, or logo.
They stressed its flexibility, serving to identify the city with a
variety of pitches.
Officials discovered that one slogan doesn't fit every need. What might
catch the eye of an executive deciding corporate locations is different
from what might attract a convention planner.
Mares said the decision to go with the stylized O! was no snap
decision. Before approval, Mares said, it was market tested.
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