UBS revs up identity change in bid to recover lost ground

Global wealth powerhouse UBS has returned to the field of branding and advertising as it seeks to cement its turnaround and rebuild and reinforce client trust. This is familiar ground for the Swiss bank after successfully launching the You and Us campaign in 2004, a key part of its global success and growth through to its derailment during the financial crisis.

What the Swiss bank achieved with the branding campaign was to successfully differentiate itself from competition. Not an easy task in a sector where branding faces the challenge of similar services offered across multiple providers, all claiming differentiation and chasing the same wealthy clients.

Even more significant, the identity was a key factor in driving the bank up the AUM tables as funds came to the institution and within 24 months it safely ensconced itself in the top slot of the Global Private Banking Benchmark produced by Scorpio Partnership.

The UBS feat was particularly impressive when considering the campaign went out across multiple geographies and business lines. That said it was a necessary expense, coming as it did after a period of expansive mergers and acquisitions across multiple jurisdictions. It needed to drive a unified image to clients and act as a tool to build a common internal culture focused around those clients.

The end result was a widely praised campaign which saw UBS emerge as a global brand. The group debuted at 45 in a BusinessWeek/Interband survey of the world’s top 100 brands in 2004, climbing to a high of 39 in 2007. Its private banking business lines profited.

Then came late 2007 and its brand strategy and wider business was derailed. High profile tax investigations in the US, write downs, and a government bailout all damaged client confidence and employee morale. Brand spend was cut drastically as the firm had other more pressing battles to fight and its rank fell to 72 in the latest survey.

Three years on from the start of its battle for survival, and the Swiss giant has re-launched a global branding and advertising campaign under the new slogan of “We will not rest”. To be aired across TV, online and print advertising, the campaign is focused on rebuilding client trust and employs pioneers such as space explorer Neil Armstrong to highlight achievements and their team support. The campaign debuted in Switzerland and Asia-Pacific first and will move into the rest of Europe as well as Africa in early September before arriving in the US later in the year.

Supporting its effort, the bank has also signed a five-year deal as a global partner for Formula 1. The estimated $200m (€157m) deal kicks off with the Singapore Grand Prix, a showpiece event in a key growth region for UBS and its competitors. Indeed, the appeal of F1 as a channel to reach affluent clients is not lost on rivals of UBS.

Notably, fellow Swiss-headquartered player EFG International has signed up to sponsor the Renault team for the remainder of the 2010 season. The channel is not all rosy, however, as Credit Suisse signalled earlier in 2010 by withdrawing from its deal with the BMW Sauber team. Funnily enough, the original deal was pushed through by UBS CEO Oswald Grübel when he led Credit Suisse.

We will see how soon this new UBS campaign will play out. Will it help in the Swiss bank’s continued turnaround? Time and lots of investment will tell.

The subject matter of brand building within wealth management can be particularly important in how it impacts business performance.

Indeed, we will be actively looking at the subject and engaging directly with the market in the coming month to learn how market players, large and small, are addressing the challenge and, if possible, achieving results from the investment. We look forward to reporting back.

Bill Yelverton is executive director at wealth management strategy think-tank Scorpio Partnership.