If there’s truth in the popular advertising and business maxim that “image is everything,” it soon became clear that dear old Nebraska, always more substance than style, had nothing.

The challenge came into focus when stewards of the state’s ad image decided a makeover was in order a few years ago and dispatched a team to conduct out-of-state focus groups.

The team of state tourism officials and members of Lincoln-based ad agency Snitily Carr began by lobbing an easy question to people in Denver, Kansas City and Chicago: “What’s your impression of Nebraska?”

Silence.

“People out of state really didn’t have an opinion of Nebraska, good or bad,” said John Schofield, who works for Snitily Carr and handles the state tourism account. “If they did, it was based on a drive down I-80.”

“There’s just no real iconic attraction — we don’t have Mount Rushmore; we don’t have Devil’s Tower; we don’t have a Disneyland; we don’t have the mountains.”

So much for constructing an ad strategy around a widely identifiable tourism centerpiece.

But a plan began to emerge after the focus groups who had viewed the state as a nebulous Great Plains blob were shown pictures of the state’s diverse landscapes.

They were pleasantly surprised, said Mary Ethel Emanuel of the state tourism division. The reaction helped give birth to the tourism ad strategy and slogan that eventually emerged from the ad agency.

Instead of artificially etching an image of the state, Schofield and others took a different tack: capitalizing on Nebraska’s ambiguity by inviting, and subtly challenging, people to dig into the state to discover its authentic attractions and experiences.

“Rather than say ‘this is who we are,’” Schofield said, “we decided to say, ‘there’s a whole lot out here, come find it for yourself.’”

With the unofficial beginning of the tourism season now under way, Nebraska ads played across the country are led by the slogan “Possibilities … Endless.”

Hoping to trigger the adventure hormone in residents of states near and far, while recognizing the lack of concrete perceptions of Nebraska, television ads ask people to look “just over the horizon and beyond your expectations” for “possibilities … as endless as your imagination.”

“It’s all waiting for you,” the narrator says at the end, speaking in a sedated voice that is part cowboy, part shaman, and is backed by what sounds like Native American flute music.

You won’t spot Nebraska’s self-portrayals in magazines like GQ and Men’s Journal. Rather, tourism leaders place them in magazines like Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home Journal. The decision is driven by research that shows women usually make the decisions about where to drive the family truckster on vacation.

States’ choices of tourism ads traditionally have been heckled by residents who scoff at overhyped images that don’t jibe with their impressions of their home states. And slogans are used and discarded like paper plates on a vacation picnic.

Nebraska is no exception.

The average number of slogans in Nebraska has been more than three per decade — more than 10 slogans since 1972’s “Nebraska … the Good Life.” Three since that time have lasted only a year, and the 1980s were a particularly neurotic decade.

“My Choice, Nebraska” sounded good to the sloganeers in 1986 but gave way to “Celebrate Nebraska” the following year. The celebration stopped the next year, though, when the switch was made to “Come See What We’re Up to Now.”

The last one, “America’s Frontier,” lasted only two years, 2002 and 2003.

Schofield said there’s no plan to change the current slogan, which he says was preceded by more research and buy-in from state agencies. It also may be a good fit with a national travel trend that could have staying power.

Consumer surveys reveal a reaction against decades of sightseeing tourism when people returned to the office and reeled off all the sights they’d seen on vacation, according to Allen Kay of the Travel Industry Association of America, a leading national tourism industry group.

“What they’re more interested in now is talking about experiences they had,” Kay said, not the type of tourism that requires standing in line at a major attraction with a gate admission.

“We see over and over and over again a trend that tourists want authentic experiences,” Kay said.

The Switzer family, which has ranched in the Sandhills’ Calamus River basin for four generations, knows that desire well. When Sue Ann and Bruce Switzer’s son and daughter-in-law decided they wanted to move back to the ranch, they realized they would need another income stream.

They offered guided hunts the first year, in 2001, then trips down the Calamus River. Then they realized they could make money charging people to watch and work cattle — mostly watch, as it turned out — such as during branding season.

“We always called them tourists anyway; they just wanted to watch,” Sue Ann Switzer said of the 100 or so family and friends that would come during spring branding. “So we just started charging.”

Now, cattle drives, branding, trail riding and the lodging associated with it compose about 40 percent of the family’s tourism-related businesses. They’ve added lodging space, and the tourism operation has grown in five years to what the family expected it would be in 10 years.

“They’re fascinated, just fascinated,” Switzer said of tourists who visit the authentic ranch, “of what we do everyday.”

Whether that sentiment produces a big boost in Nebraska tourism remains to be seen. But for those whose job it is to encapsulate all things desirable and authentic about the state, stamp it with a theme and present it to the world, the possibilities seem, well, endless.

“Nebraska and the Great Plains are on the cusp of being discovered,” Emanuel said. “So much of the country is more well known than the Great Plains, and people want to look for other things to see and do.”

Reach Nate Jenkins at 473-7223 or njenkins@journalstar.com.

Nebraska slogans

Since 1972, Nebraska has had a dozen slogans designed to entice tourists.

2004-2006: Possibilities … Endless

2002-2003: America’s Frontier

1998-2001: Genuine Nebraska

1992-1997: Send a Postcard from Nebraska

1988-1991: Come See What We’re Up to Now

1987: Celebrate Nebraska

1986: My Choice, Nebraska

1982-1985: Nebraska … Discover the Difference

1980-1981: Nebraska … Delightfully Different

1979: Vacation Nebraska

1977-1978: Nebraska … the Good Life

1976: Rediscover Nebraska during the Bicentennial

1972-1975: Nebraska … the Good Life