Estonia looking for a new slogan
Enterprise Estonia (EAS), the government agency responsible for looking after the country's image abroad and promoting tourism, has initiated a search for a distinctive slogan by which Estonia could be known for around the world. The long-serving "Welcome to Estonia" will be dumped.
Prior to Estonia celebrating its 100th anniversary and hosting the EU presidency in 2018, EAS is looking to replace the current “Welcome to Estonia” logo and slogan with a more catchy one.
It comes in light of the opinions by various institutions and entrepreneurs that Estonia's image in the world is not strong enough.
In a study, conducted last year, EAS questioned almost 500 top managers and CEOs of Estonian companies and asked how many of them have used either “Made in Estonia” or “Welcome to Estonia” brand when selling their products or services in foreign markets. The results were not exactly cheerful, to put it mildly – only 4 percent have used these brands in the past and just 2 percent still do. At the same time, 50 percent of entrepreneurs say that using a common Estonian brand would be helpful.
Another international poll, organized by Lonely Planet in 2011, demonstrated that Estonia's slogan was one of the least popular – only UK's “You’re invited” fared worse. Latvia's “Best enjoyed slowly” was voted best.
EAS thus concluded that Estonia's official slogans and logos used until now clearly don't work very well and the search is on for something new.
“Welcome to Estonia”, the country's official logo, was created in 2002 and cost 850,000 euros. In 2008, another slogan, “Positively surprising”, was added.
EAS said that the first task in the process of finding a compelling international brand for Estonia is to evaluate the results from recent brand studies, followed by a wide-reaching discussion and agreement in the Estonian society on identifying the country's strenghts and selling points. The organisation is also organizing multiple working groups and panels that will comprise of experts from different fields, most crucially Estonians who have international experience either in business or the arts. Their task is to help shape a new captivating brand for Estonia.
The new slogan is expected to cost 200,000 euros.
Editor: S. Tambur