A Plan for the Future

It seems that the Queensland Government has a plan for the future. Right now, their plan for the future is to add the words “and a plan for the future” to their branding. The obvious question is “why” – and the only answer is to tie the Newman-led government’s branding to that of the LNP prior to the election campaign. The message is this government has the plan, so don’t change the government. 

The real advantage, though, is not only in the wording. The new branding will appear on official state government stationery, websites and even offices in the six month lead-up to the election. Regardless of how clever an opposition campaign might be, or how much money is spent to distribute it, it can’t compete with the government’s taxpayer-funded initiative.

It’s a smart, subtle tool to bolster the LNP vote, before the campaign proper has commenced.

Traditionally, state slogans have been vaguely descriptive, without any political governmental reference points. State slogans – as opposed to political slogans – are just a few words that appear on state letterheads, websites and licence plate to evoke images, memories and emotions. Victoria was The Garden State and The Place to Be, New South Wales used The First State, The Premier State and Towards 2000, South Australia was The Festival State and Tasmania’s most famous slogan was The Apple Isle. Note the absence of verbs.

In contrast, political slogans may be slightly longer and usually contain a statement of values or intent, an aspiration or an urge to action: Turn on the Lights (Federal Liberal campaign, 1975, after Whitlam dismissal), Keep the Bastards Honest (Democrats), Real Change for NSW (NSW 2011) and Go for Growth (Liberal/Howard).

The last Queensland election, in 2011, was a lopsided tussle between the LNP’s all-conquering “Can-Do” campaign, which completely overshadowed the party’s official “Time for Change” campaign, versus the Queensland Labor’s slogan, which despite being less than three years old, has been comprehensively forgotten.

The Queensland LNP is hoping their branding for 2015 won't be forgotten as quickly. According to the ABC, a spokesman for the Premier's Department confirmed that the addition to the government’s tagline is a deliberate attempt by the Newman government to move attention away from the past. 

"The additional line reflects this Government's strong plan for a bright future and reflects the state's 30 year vision for the state, the Queensland Plan," the spokesman said.

The unthinking spokesman also admitted that the new slogan is about the LNP Government, and not about the state of Queensland.

A spokesman for Premier Campbell Newman said the new catchphrase drew attention to the LNP's "strong plan" for Queensland.

After a cursory look at some Queensland government websites this morning, the enhanced tag line was nowhere to be seen. The Queensland Government’s extensive online guide to branding does not mention the new tagline, and was last updated 18 months ago.

Changing branding is always an expensive exercise – consider the hours involved in updating every page of every government website, the cost of reprinting every piece of printed material – from business cards to brochures to forms to letterhead and envelopes to posters – plus signage on buildings and building sites, departmental cars, asset labels, road signs…strictly speaking, everything which carries the logo would need to be changed. Because this change is officially a government change, taxpayers will pay, despite the benefit going to LNP’s re-election campaign.

This is the second change to state branding since the LNP government won power less than three years ago. The existing tag line “Great State. Great Opportunity.” was introduced shortly after the Newman government came to office, when they replaced the famous Beattie Burger logo with the traditional Queensland crest.

Early indications are that the 2015 Queensland election slogans will follow tradition. The LNP website homepage is perilously close to the new tagline being added to the state logo; the state branding omits the word “strong”, which must test well with LNP members – consider the recent “Strong Choices” market research exercise.

The ALP appears to favour the blandly generic “for Queenslanders”…which may have been the slogan used in 2012’s catastrophic loss to the Can-Do team. Who can remember? Palmer United Party’s “Bringing People Together” and “Reunite the Nation” vie for warm and fuzzy attention, and the Greens favour the predictable “Make a Difference for Tomorrow”. These slogans may all change during the next few months.

The one thing we know, six months out, is that the Newman LNP government has a plan for the future, and that plan is to win re-election in 2015.