February 20, 2004
(Updated) 'Brand Oregon' Campaign Launches Website For Oregon Stories
Oregonians Invited To Participate In Promoting The State
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Curiously, earlier today we received a telephone call from someone who had been a little confused after a Google search and thought we had something to do with The Oregonian and could perhaps give them some information about the Brand Oregon campaign created by Wieden + Kennedy.
We explained that we were not affiliated with The Oregonian, but that in the past we had indeed written about the Brand Oregon campaign. However, we couldn't, offhand, answer his question about how much Wieden + Kennedy had been paid for the concept, and suggested he try searching The Business Journal of Portland for such information.
Now, we're calling this a curiosity because later today -- just recently this afternoon, in fact -- we received the first communication to come across the electronic mailing list set up for people interested in the Brand Oregon campaign.
The message led off with the official announcement that the My Oregon Story website had been launched, as part of the campaign which (you may recall) exists within the umbrella tagline, "Oregon: We Love Dreamers."
"The goal is to have hundreds of inspiring stories on Oregon-based homepages," the email said. "Stories that impart Oregonians' values and perspectives and 'applied idealism.'" Or, as the website itself has it:
Organizations and businesses throughout Oregon are invited to participate in Governor Kulongoski's Brand Oregon Initiative by posting your unique Oregon story on the Brand Oregon website.
The goal of this effort is to have hundreds of Oregon messages on as many diverse websites as possible. Oregon stories will tell your website visitors a little bit about your company's or organization's philosophy and how this dovetails with a love of Oregon�our people and places.
Elsewhere, the website explains the rules, offers an example, and provides a form for submitting your own Oregon story.
"The Brand Oregon Office reserves the right to edit and/or reject all stories submitted," the website disclaims. "If major edits are required they will be sent to the submitter for final approval."
Meanwhile, you can also download the presentation (pdf) the Brand Oregon campaign has been using to explain itself around the state. It's essentially the one we saw at the Oregon Business Summit last December, and includes many samples of the sorts of things the campaign intends to do.
When the "We Love Dreamers" slogan first was introduced, there was much derision -- including from us. But, as we eventually came to recognize, the guts of the campaign itself isn't adequately reflected by an over-emphasis on the slogan alone.
There are far worse approaches to take than calling for people to submit their own personal stories. It in essence distributes the effort of promoting Oregon amongst those who best know the many and varied aspects of our state: Oregonians themselves. And that makes extraordinary sense -- both creatively and (in times when the state would no doubt be heavily criticized if it spent too much money on marketing) financially as well.
Update
Of course, we notice now that you have to be representing some sort of Oregon entity -- business, non-profit organization, educational institution, or government agency -- to submit an Oregon story. So all of you, well, normal everyday people who don't represent anything other than yourselves?
You're out of luck.
As is the Brand Oregon campaign, which is going to miss out on the stories of a rather large and arguably important segment of the state's population, and is not being quite as broadly innovative as it had at first seemed to us.
Comments (4)
myrln on 20 Feb 2004
Yeah, but who gives a shit about normal, ordinary people anyway? It's the new world: only enitities, especially corporations, that count. Dream on, Oregon.
pb on 20 Feb 2004
Couldn't we ordinary people who are on the Web anyway form an entity just for the purpose of submitting stories? Maybe some sort of Oregon Weblog Collective NGO? ;)
The One True b!X on 20 Feb 2004
Of course. They, however, may reject them.
Someone could also register a domain for, say, My Other Oregon Story and put out the call for all rejected "official" stories to be submitted there, and prime the pump (so to speak) by putting lots of Brand Oregon keywords on the site so Web searches pick it up pretty near where/when they pick up the official Brand Oregon.
The possibilties are, clearly, endless.
Drix on 29 Feb 2004
NORMAL FOLX, smart or dumb, come have a voce and we'll all have fun.
Visit my forum and "Let's TalkAbout it," at www.drix.org - communities of EUGENE and OREGON and Beyond.
Thanx,
Dr:x