I.Seoul.U city slogan to be scrapped

A 3D installation of Seoul's city brand I.Seoul.U stands in Yeouido Hangang Park. A total of 29 symbolic sculptures are installed at city landmarks. / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to introduce more appealing, catchier slogan to attract international tourists and foreign investment

By Lee Hae-rin

Since January this year, Seoul Metropolitan Government has been working on a new city slogan that will replace I.Seoul.U. The city government has set up a task force committee for the new slogan project and plans to unveil it no later than the year's end. The new slogan will go into use next year.

According to its spokesperson, Wednesday, there has been a consensus among city government officials that the current brand I.Seoul.U is not appealing or competitive enough to draw the attention of international travelers and foreign investors, compared to those of other global cities such as New York or Amsterdam.

I.Seoul.U has been the capital's slogan for years since being selected through a public contest in 2015.

Seoul's city brand history began in 2002 when then-Mayor Lee Myung-bak presented the slogan "Hi Seoul" while jointly hosting the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Japan. By adding the greeting "Hi" to the capital's name, the brand aimed to promote a friendly image to a global audience.

Seoul City's first brand slogan "Hi Seoul" served as the city's symbol from 2002 to 2015 / Korea Times file

The brand served as the city's symbol for 13 years, as his successor Mayor Oh Se-hoon from the conservative ruling party kept using the brand and added "Soul of Asia." However, it faced criticism for being incomprehensible to English speakers and was replaced in 2015 during the mayorship of Park Won-soon, a liberal politician who later joined the Democratic Party of Korea.

Park raised the need for a "futuristic global brand" to represent the capital and launched a public contest to gather thoughts from the public. Over 236,000 citizens joined the competition with 26,544 being foreign nationals. The event heated up as more than 16,000 entries were submitted, resulting in the highest participation rate in the history of the city's public contests.

In October 2015, I.Seoul.U, won 58.2 percent of the votes from citizens and an expert panel and was, therefore, proclaimed the new brand for the city.

Former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, center with the red bow tie, holds a banner bearing the slogan I.Seoul.U during the city brand proclamation ceremony at Seoul Square, Oct. 28, 2015. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

I.Seoul.U cost the city cost 800 million won for brand development, which certainly sparked some commotion. The new slogan faced fierce criticism and opposition for its grammatical nonsensicality and ambiguity.

Despite the controversy, the city government has used it over the past seven years for campaigning and promoting the city's brand. Twenty-nine giant 3D logos spelling out I.Seoul.U were installed at touristic landmarks costing the city over 1 billion won.

As the brand grew to be more recognized by the public, the brand awareness rate and approval rating ― which were initially at 63 percent and 52.8 percent, respectively, in 2016 ― jumped to 75.1 percent and 88.3 percent in surveys conducted by the city government.

"Seoul has become even more competitive and attractive since the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a consensus within the city government that it was now time for a new city brand," a city government official from the branding department said.

Tourism slogan confusion

More recently, the I.Seoul.U slogan is now being confused often with the new tourism slogan, "My Soul, Seoul."

The capital's new tourism slogan was unveiled earlier this month and has been widely welcomed but is widely being misperceived by many as the city's new city slogan.

Seoul's new tourism slogan "My Soul, Seoul," uploaded on Seoul Tourism Organization's YouTube channel on June 3 / Courtesy of Seoul Tourism Organization

The city government and the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO) uploaded a new tourism promotion video titled "My Soul, Seoul" on the organization's YouTube channel "Visit Seoul TV," on June 3.

With swing jazz playing in the background, the 50-second video features dynamic bird's-eye night views of Seoul's landmarks including Mount Nam, the Han River, Gwanghwamun and Cheong Wa Dae (the old presidential office).

"Fill up your soul in sleepless Seoul," the subtitle reads in the video, highlighting how the city is safe for travelers to explore at night. It features famous quotes from master artists and literary greats such as Vincent van Gogh, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Fyodor Dostoevsky about the beauty of the nighttime to describe Seoul's night scene and invites viewers to visit and explore the city.

The video, viewed by nearly 1 million people as of June 23, has seen enthusiastic responses among Koreans as well as internationally, as has the slogan.

"It better reflects the true spirit of Seoul compared to I.Seoul.U," one viewer wrote in English in the comments, while another wrote, "It's such a relief that Seoul has been rebranded and will no longer use the shameful I.Seoul.U, which doesn't even make sense grammatically," in Korean.

However, the city government officials confirmed to The Korea Times on Wednesday that the slogan in the video is a tourism slogan made to boost the post-pandemic recovery of the travel industry, but not the city's new brand to replace I.Seoul.U.

The rebranding task force has held seven meetings since this January but has not yet commenced the project's development phase. It will take the rest of the year to devise the next brand, including working with consultancy experts and the public plus revising the ordinance with the city council to officially designate the new brand as the city government's new symbol and property, the official said.

Considering that the main target of the city brand is to boost foreign tourism and investment, the city government plans to actively collect feedback and opinions from Seoul residents of foreign nationality and people worldwide to find a more suitable and effective message for promoting the city.