Province dumps 'Alberta Advantage' for new brand

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach calls the province's new slogan and logo — and the accompanying $25-million campaign — "money very well spent."

Unveiled to a meeting of rural politicians Wednesday, the new logo is featured in handwritten script with a slogan that reads, "Freedom To Create... Spirit To Achieve."

A TV, radio and print campaign, as well as changes to all of the province's letterheads, vehicles and signage, are budgeted for $25 million over three years.

The new motto will replace the "Alberta Advantage," which had been used for the last 15 years, in a bid to rework the province's one-sided, oil-heavy reputation. International campaigns have tried to tarnish Alberta's oilsands as an environmental blight.

"We want to get the correct information out, deal with the misperceptions perhaps. And every time, you know, I watch the video, it gets me certainly emotional about, builds my passion for this province," Stelmach said Wednesday.

In a soft launch at the end of the annual spring convention of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties in Edmonton, a video featured sweeping images of the Rockies and the Badlands, along with the new, corporate message.

The new website and ad campaigns go live on Thursday.

"It's worth more than the $25 million. We're predicting a $40-billion revenue stream," Stelmach said. "It's money very well spent."

Alberta's public affairs bureau and Calder Bateman, an Edmonton communications firm, spent months with focus groups in Canada and the U.S. before coming up with a message that they say conveys a dynamic place with a diversity of voices.

"We want to attract more tourism, more investment, and it's the appropriate time to rebrand the province," Stelmach explained. "I feel good about it, and [in] all of the testing that's been done, the people that have watched it feel very passionate about the province, but they feel confident that that's the way to go."