Seoul announces new publicly chosen branding slogan

The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Wednesday announced its new city brand with a slogan chosen by Seoul citizens, “Seoul, my soul.”

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, center, poses for a photo during an event to announce Seoul’s new brand for its slogan “Seoul, my soul,” held at Seoul City Hall in Jung District, central Seoul, on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Wednesday announced its new city brand with a slogan chosen by Seoul citizens, “Seoul, my soul.”

The announcement comes as Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon stressed the significance of revamping the city brand to make the city of Seoul “one of the top five global cities.”

“The city government expects the new brand will recruit foreign tourists as well as investment from companies,” Oh said.

The new slogan will replace the previous one, “I Seoul U,” implemented in 2015 when the late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was in office.

Oh said in June during a Seoul Metropolitan Council meeting that he wanted to scrap the previous slogan “I Seoul U” on the first day he came back to office as Seoul mayor.

The slogan received harsh criticism from the public regarding its inaccurate English grammar and ambiguous meaning.

The city government started demolishing structures of the previous slogan at 29 locations in the city, including Nodeul Island in Yongsan District, central Seoul, in February as the city planned to select a new city slogan.

Pictograms of the new slogan's design [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]

According to the metropolitan government, the latest design of the slogan includes pictograms in vibrant colors.

A red heart represents people’s affection and interests in the city, a yellow exclamation mark refers to new experiences and inspiration and a blue smiley face portrays fun moments in the city.

The city also added a Korean sub-slogan which translates to “bringing people’s hearts together makes the city of Seoul.”

Around 850,000 citizens and experts, including foreigners, participated in selecting the latest slogan and designing it. The project kicked off in August last year and ended in June of this year.

The new slogan was picked from four candidates, after receiving over 60 percent of the votes.

The latest slogan may sound familiar to many as it is a variation of the Seoul Tourism Organization’s brand, “My Soul Seoul,” which it has promoted since May last year.

The organization promoted its brand in a YouTube clip featuring boy band BTS called “BTS with Seoul,” which recorded over 100 million views.

“It takes a long time for companies and institutions to develop new brands and make them familiar to consumers,” said Lee Jong-min, a professor at Kookmin University’s advertising and public relations department, who participated in the city's latest brand revamp project.

“It will be an efficient strategy to use and develop brands that received positive feedback to shorten the time required to make them familiar to the people.”

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]