09/05/13 — Contest down to final five

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Contest down to final five

By Matt Caulder
Published in News on September 5, 2013 1:46 PM

The deadline has passed, and five slogans have risen to the top of the heap in the "What's In A Name?" contest to choose the new city motto.

The top five mottos are: "Be More, Do More, Seymour"; "Soaring To New Heights"; "Small Town Charm, Big City Aspirations"; "Celebrating Our Past, Embracing Our Future"; and "Crossroads of the Carolinas."

The mottos were whittled down from 915 original entries to the top 21 by the city marketing team and then they were put out for a vote in August to get the top five.

There were 1,006 votes to whittle down the top five entries.

The city marketing team will develop a marketing package to go along with each entry for the Mayor and Council to consider in their final choice.

The marketing package will include possible branding efforts tailored to each idea.

The team also will decide on its top three favorite ideas to recommend to City Council in October.

"It will be a long process, putting together a package for each one. It might even take till the middle of October," Goldsboro Public Information Officer Kim Best said.

While the original intent was for the selection committee to choose 20 slogans for the public to vote on for the top five, a 21st idea was included by combining two other ideas submitted to the contest.

"If that idea is chosen in the top five then we'll double the prize," Mrs. Best said. "If it is chosen overall then we'll have to double that prize."

The ideas were combined because the selection committee thought they would work so well together that they wanted to offer residents the chance to see it.

"We don't want to say which idea it is because we don't want people to like it more or less because of it," she said.

The top 20 submissions will receive two passes to the Goldsboro Municipal Golf Course, two tickets to a Paramount Theatre movie, a "Do It Downtown" T-shirt and a city of Goldsboro bag.

The top five entrants will receive two rounds of golf with a cart at the Goldsboro golf course, two tickets to an event in the Paramount Theatre Performing Arts Series, a gift card to a downtown restaurant selected by the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. and a Goldsboro restaurant voucher.

The winning selection will receive dinner with Mayor Al King, a one-year membership to the Goldsboro Golf Course, a Paramount Theatre full series package, 100 Downtown Dollars, a free Parks and Registration program registration to an activity of their choice, a one-year membership to the YMCA, a prize package at Lights Up Downtown and will be featured as a guest on the WGTV morning show.