"For a state like California, it really doesn't matter what the slogan is," Rugh said. "Maybe a brand is more important for places like Utah. Nevada will have people go there to gamble, no matter what their slogan is."

Utah isn't having a statewide contest to pick a winner — the Utah Board of Tourism Development has final say — but Utah tourism officials and W Communications execs received tons of suggestions for Utah's brand late last year when they visited more than a dozen cities. A stop at the Salt Palace yielded these, among others: "All Five Senses In One Place," "Good, Clean Fun," "As Close To Heaven As It Gets," "Get Out Here," "Connect With Yourself," "Expanding Horizons" and "The World Is Still Welcome."

A near miss

Obviously, ideas abound. But consider that nearly every state has a brand, and thousands of cities, regions, associations, organizations, counties, foreign countries and corporations also have conjured up some of their own.

That can lead to trouble. In fact, Utah had a brand picked out but found during a registration process that it was too similar to one used by the Colorado Ski Association. The association's was "Enter a Higher State." Utah folks aren't saying what their near-doppelganger was.

So, legal troubles aside, in all that flotsam and jetsam in the sea of brands, how can a state hope its tag line stands out?

Even Hurst has acknowledged that problem. Shortly after his company landed the Utah branding contract, Hurst noted that Utah's brand must fight through 14,000 advertising "impressions" people are subjected to every day.

"One of the most difficult things about this is that this is not a simple product," von der Esch said. "This is Utah, which is as diverse and as unique as any place in the world. . . . If I had a single product, like a muffler, it would be one thing. But this is the state and it has great people, great arts, great culture, dinosaurs, landscapes, rock. That's what we're trying to get, that essence of whatever someone's visit to Utah is, what they take home from their own experience, which we think is a fantastic one."

Case study

To Utah's north, Idaho two years ago switched from "Great Potatoes; Tasty Destinations" to "Nowhere Near . . . " A final word or two can be added to give the brand a specific message, adding flexibility.

The idea is to help out-of-staters realize that while they may not know much about Idaho, they'll have a lot to discover if they visit, according to Jeremy Chase, an account executive at es/drake, a Boise-based agency that developed the brand.