Sandra Watson, president of the Arizona Commerce Authority, talks about the effort to rebrand Arizona. (Photo by Julia Thatcher/Cronkite News)
Arizona is known as the Grand Canyon State, but could the state be getting another slogan? A new re-branding campaign is looking to clean up and create a more positive image for the state.
People flocked to social media using the hash tag “RebrandAZ” to share their ideas. Some of those ideas included slogans such as “Arizona: Temperatures higher than our test scores” and “What happens in Tent City stays in Tent City.”
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Aric Zion, CEO of Zion and Zion, a local advertising agency in Tempe, said he didn’t take any of the proposed slogans too seriously. “People have certain reservations buried deep in their psyche,” Zion said, “And they talk to people and they get a sense of popular opinion those things are going to come out so they do need to be addressed.”
The $250,000 plan is being spearheaded by the Arizona Commerce Authority. When asked about why now is the time for a new branding campaign, President and CEO Sandra Watson said, “It’s important that we begin to establish an identity for the state of Arizona. It’s important that we don’t let others define who Arizona is.”
Currently, there is no set timeline for the campaign but the ACA hopes to announce a full brand guideline in late fall of 2015.
The Arizona Commerce Authority said they would love to hear ideas or reasons of why people think Arizona is great. Those ideas can be submitted directly to them using the hashtag “PromoteAZ” on social media.