Advertising industry veteran and commentator Jane Caro said parts of the new $2.6 million "Brand Canberra" campaign were anodyne - a far cry from its aims of presenting the capital as "confident, bold and ready".

Funded by the ACT government as an ongoing legacy of the 2013 Centenary year, the campaign features the new CBR Canberra logo and touts the city through a video.

Public relations firm the Content Group and advertising agency Coordinate consulted with the community about the concept, working to shift perceptions about the capital and encourage visitors, new residents and investors.

The full brand program will be unveiled in March.

Ms Caro, a copywriting specialist and a panelist on ABC TV's Gruen Transfer, told Fairfax Media the campaign logo was attractive and up-to-date, but an accompanying video was long and boring.

"It’s one cliché piled on top of another and it also sounds a bit desperate," she said.

"I think it’s like a committee got together and they had a wish list of what they wanted people to think Canberra was like. You just tell people what Canberra is like and expect they’ll believe Canberra is confident, bold and ready - you have to tell them a story.

"I guess the take out message, tragically, is to confer what people already think – that Canberra is anodyne, bland and that there’s nothing unexpected about it. It’s precisely what that video looks like."

She praised the ACT Government's successful Human Brochure tourism campaign as original and thought provoking.

"If you want to say to people 'we’re not what you think we’re like, we’re not what you expected' then do something unexpected.

"I don’t blame Canberra. It’s every bloody tourism ad because it’s usually done to please people who already live in the place instead of being done for the people who don’t."

The creative mind behind landmark branding including the Commonwealth Bank and recently unveiled South Australia logo, Ken Cato, said the first public reactions are often negative.

"That would be an expected reaction because most people are not informed as to why and how the thing has occurred, what the process and research has been and what the strategy is," he said.

"My immediate reaction is that I don’t honestly believe it is going to meet the needs of Canberra into the future and it tells me very little about Canberra."

The Melbourne-based designer questioned the use of the "CBR" logo and said it was more appropriate for larger cities including Los Angeles.

"If that’s the best Canberra has to offer, I would be pretty disappointed. Canberra is a terrific place and the video promises a lot which I think is delivered by other cities in a much bigger and more impactful way," Mr Cato said.

"Canberra’s got a charm and it’s not the big city impact and I get none of that.

"If there is a message there, I don't know what it is. I don't want to pick it to pieces because I think that's very unfair because you need to see what the strategy is and how it's been structured and often these things have something to follow."

The team behind the campaign moved to avoid a diplomatic slight hours after the campaign's release, removing text that linked the Nigerian capital Lagos with corruption.

A spokesman said the text came from writings by place-branding expert Simon Anholt, but was removed because it was considered inappropriate.

The ACT and Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Canberra Convention Bureau praised the campaign.

Chamber chief executive Andrew Blyth said the organisation had contributed to the development of the new brand.

“We have so much to offer and our new brand will encourage people to sit up and take notice,” he said.

“We are excited about Canberra's future and of it being a city of brilliant possibilities.”

''That is really where 'Brand Canberra' comes into its own.''