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UOB announces brand refresh as it intensifies its Asean focus
SINGAPORE — UOB on Wednesday (14 September) announced its brand refresh in line with its renewed focus that signals the bank's long-term strategy and commitment to the Asean region.
“We have always believed in the potential of Asean, with its favourable demographics and resilient fundamentals," Wee Ee Cheong, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of UOB, said. "As Asean re-starts its engine of growth post-pandemic, it is timely for the bank to unveil its sharpened purpose and brand refresh."
Wee added that by the time the bank celebrates its 100th year in 2035, it wants to be the most preferred bank for both consumers and businesses across key markets.
As part of the brand revitalisation, UOB introduced a refreshed logo and a new seal mark, new apparel and an integrated regional brand campaign called "Doing Right By You", to showcase its transformation to be future ready for its customers and people in the new banking era.
UOB will be rolling out the regional brand campaign through a series of brand films and advertisements on TV, print, digital and out-of-home channels that include airports.
The two key messages in the campaign — "You Are Unique" and "One Bank for ASEAN" — will show how the bank deliver on personalisation and connectivity respectively.
The campaign will start 15 September across seven markets namely Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. UOB declined to disclose how much it spent on the rebranding campaign.
UOB in January 2022 agreed to acquire Citigroup's consumer banking franchise in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam for about S$4.9 billion to scale its Asean ambitions.
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Three strategic areas
To deliver on its purpose, the bank will double down on three strategic areas — connectivity, personalisation and sustainability.
Connectivity is one of UOB's core strength, it said, with its regional footprint and its one-bank approach that help businesses to connect with and within Asean, opening doors to new opportunities of growth across Asean.
Personalisation — which can be experienced with UOB TMRW — captures the bank's focus on customer-centricity and commitment to understand the unique needs of each individual customer, achieved through a combination of data and relationship-led insights. This enables the bank to create solutions that are closely aligned to customer needs, in a manner that engages them and better anticipates their life goals.
Sustainability reflects UOB's long-term approach to the future, specifically the importance of impactful and sustainable development across the region.
“We believe that because every customer is unique, they should have a personalised experience with UOB, whether it is engaging with us digitally, through our relationship managers or physically at our branches," Jacquelyn Tan, Head of Group Personal Financial Services at UOB, said.
In September 2021, UOB said it will invest up to S$500 million to scale up its digital initiatives as it seeks to double the retail customers it serves digitally to more than seven million customers across Asean by 2026. Part of that investment will involve combining its digital bank TMRW, with its mobile app UOB Mighty on one platform called UOB TMRW.
Refreshed look
As part of the brand revitalisation, the bank introduced an extensive new range of UOB apparel. The new apparel is a collection of mix-and-match outfits to reflect the new multi-skilled roles of its people at the branches and is designed by Odile Benjamin, founder and CEO of Estair Private Ltd. The design print on the apparels takes inspiration from the Vitalità sculpture and follows a cubic art approach to layering the UOB letters in a bold, sculptural manner.
The 12m high Vitalità sculpture can be seen at the UOB Plaza in Singapore, China and Thailand. It will also be installed in Malaysia in the coming months.
UOB today also officially opened its new UOB Privilege Banking Centre at 270 Orchard Road which serves customers with at least S$350,000 in assets under management.
In Asia, UOB operates through its head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as branches and representative offices across the region.
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