“I.Seoul.U” debuts as Seoul’s new slogan

Celebrating the new city’s slogan. (newsis)

Replacing the previous Seoul city’s Slogan “Hi Seoul” which has been used for 13 years, Seoul Metropolitan Government selected a new slogan, seeking to revamp its brand image and entice more tourists.

Beating two other candidates, “Seoulmate” and “SEOULing”, the new slogan they chose was “I.Seoul.U”. Some 58% of voters supported “I. SEOUL. U” in a poll that consisted of online votes by citizens and an on-the-spot vote by a panel of residents and experts. In the on-the-spot poll, all nine experts and 682 out of 1,140 residents supported the new logo, according to The Korea Herald.

Since late 2014, the city has launched a campaign for a new slogan to replace the current one — “Hi Seoul, Soul of Asia,” — which the city administration considered to be difficult to use in China, the country accounting for the highest number of tourists to Seoul. In 2006, China banned the use of the expression “Soul of Asia.”

But some foreigners and expats pointed out that the new slogan might not communicate well with those who reside in English-speaking countries, suggesting that the brand fails to capture the sophisticated image the city is trying to promote. The new slogan has garnered some negative responses online from foreign expats and Koreans all the same.

Soongsil University professor Kim Min-ki, who was in charge of the city’s slogan project, said there were more than 16,000 candidates in the preliminary.

Non-brand experts selected 30 of them, and then a group of 28 experts took part in selecting the three finalists. There was only one foreigner among the 28. Among the other candidate slogans were “Surprising Seoul” and “Find Your Seoul”, which would have been more appealing to foreigners.

As a foreigner, I think the new brand/slogan is a tad more innovative than the previous one, but it would take much longer for people to accept. The whole idea behind the new slogan as the committee said is that it can have a variety of meanings that Seoul can be anything between I and U ― a concept which they think is important. Bu a number of foreigners still can’t find the appeal in the new city’s slogan. The new slogan seems more inviting and welcoming, there’s more warmth in using “I” and “U”, and the word “Seoul” could be changed into any verb, offering a wide array of varieties. But it would take a long time to catch on, and for people to accept it and use it as it was meant to be used, a connecting slogan.