UOB launches its brand campaign as it celebrates its 80th year

As part of United Overseas Bank’s (UOB) 80th anniversary celebrations, the Bank is launching a brand campaign focused on its unwavering and long-term commitment to its customers and employees.

The new brand campaign builds on the heritage of UOB and the elements that best position it to remain relevant in the changing lives of its customers and employees across its network of more than 500 branches and offices globally. It portrays a bank that is built on, and led by, timeless values that are needed to do what is right for its stakeholders. This principle is what lies behind the new strapline ‘Right by you’.

The campaign was based on research that UOB had conducted over a year which focused on its customers from Retail to Wholesale Banking across its regional network. The Bank ran an online exchange over nine months to draw insight from a cross-section of its employees ranging from the newly hired to the ones who have been with Bank for 40 years. The research also gathered intelligence from beyond the financial services industry to include hospitality, technology and lifestyle sectors. Findings from all the research were used to define the positioning for the brand campaign.

The brand campaign will be rolled out across the region from 1 October 2015. It is timed to coincide with the first day on which UOB opened its doors in 1935. On that day, UOB began offering banking services for the merchant community in Singapore as United Chinese Bank at Bonham Building, Raffles Place. In 1965, the Bank was renamed United Overseas Bank as it expanded into Hong Kong and thereafter grew organically and through a series of strategic acquisitions across the region. Today, the Bank is among the world’s top banks, rated an Aa1 by Moody’s and AA- by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings respectively.

Gan Ai Im, Head of Brand, UOB Group said, “The new brand campaign captures the ethos that has driven UOB’s achievements over the past 80 years and reflects how we will be guided into the future in our decision-making, behavior and relationships with all our stakeholders. It was derived from the collective voice of our customers and colleagues that we gleaned from our extensive research. At the heart of it all is that while time changes the environment and circumstances, but we will stay true to and uphold our values to do what is right, always.”

UOB’s ‘five-bar’ logo refreshed, a corporate seal introduced.

The brand campaign will introduce UOB’s refreshed logo which is a contemporary version of the iconic red five-bar logo mark. The original mark was based on the traditional Chinese ‘five-bar gate’ system of counting in fives, symbolising security and unity.

A corporate seal has also been introduced as a representation of UOB’s identity, its strong Asian heritage and commitment to live up to its brand promise. The new UOB seal with Chinese characters is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Chinese seals.

The brand campaign will first be launched in Singapore and will be rolled out progressively in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Hong Kong in 2016.