Tourism officials searching for new Nevada catchphrase

Tourists pose in front of the iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign Tuesday, March 6, 2012.

Representatives of the Nevada Commission on Tourism have started whittling a list of potential tag lines to attract visitors to the state.

Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who chairs the commission, said the phrases reviewed at Wednesday’s marketing subcommittee meeting could evolve and that the process will continue through a testing phase before any decision is reached.

John Rubino of Seattle-based GreenRubino, the commission’s contracted brand development consultant, said some of the top tag lines would be reviewed by focus groups, tested and brought back to the commission within about three weeks for consideration.

Among the top ideas reviewed by the committee:

• "ReiNVent." Committee members discussed the emphasis of “NV” in the center of the word and noted that several other words with the imbedded NV letters could be used in marketing economic development as well as tourism, with words like “ReiNVest” and “ReiNVigorate.”

• "All in Nevada." The phrase plays off poker terminology. To go “all in” means wagering all remaining chips in a game. But it also connotes being fully engaged in the state and, in a different context, an image that there are a variety of things to see and do in Nevada. Committee members also considered a related phrase, Nevada All In.

• "Nevada is for Doers." Early in the process, research by Rubino’s team indicated that part of the state’s appeal is that there are so many things to see and do, and the phrase was born. Some committee members, however, were concerned that it sounded too much like Virginia’s highly successful “Virginia is for Lovers” tag line.

Rubino presented committee members with a list of 71 potential tag lines and included a short list of nine, including what his team considered the best. Several of those lines didn’t incorporate a specific connection to Nevada.

Rubino’s team started the project late last summer, finding initially that developing a brand for Nevada was a bigger challenge than anticipated because the state has so many diverse attractions.

When Rubino’s team tests the lines, they’ll be done without graphic imagery to focus primarily on the tags themselves.

The long list of tag lines included some with connections to the gaming industry and others with connection to mining.

Among the lines rejected: "Lots to NV," "NEVADAmazing," "Get In On the Action," "Dig Into It," "Discovery is in Our Veins," "State of Mine" and "The Gold Standard."

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