UBS attempts to answer life’s big questions
Financial service firms often struggle to communicate their values to clients, which makes UBS’ new branding campaign all the more impressive
Those familiar with Scorpio Partnership will be familiar with our mantra: “What wealth needs next”.
The logical extension of this motto is that across our portfolio of work and output, we are consistently putting the end client, their views and their needs at the centre and this is something we impress upon our clients regardless of the project at hand.
So it was with some small sense of satisfaction that we saw UBS Wealth Management launch its new global branding campaign, its first in five years.
Back in 2010, the strapline “We will not rest” was designed to provide ballast to a bank which had lost its way following the financial crisis, embroiled in a series of ongoing battles with the US Department of Justice over claims of aiding clients evade tax and plenty more besides.
SENSITIVE APPROACH
The new campaign however, takes a different and more sensitive approach. Using the photography of Annie Leibovitz, UBS has moved beyond marketing its products and services directly by building its campaign around what it is calling “Life’s questions”.
Those questions may seem completely and entirely unrelated to world of wealth management. For example, its 90 second advert, begins with questions such as “Is Santa real?”, “Why do I have homework?” and “Will you marry me?”.
But what becomes apparent as you focus on the questions posed, is that they represent a journey, a lifetime journey through the eyes of clients, which are perhaps best surmised through questions like these and many others.
More impressively still, UBS does not just rest at posing these questions.
Clients choose financial products because they speak to the values and demands they face as individuals. They are emotional and deeply personal decisions
On its dedicated microsite it attempts to answer these questions by using the voices and stories of clients and others to get to the heart of these vexing questions.
In the life question page “Am I a good father? Do I spend too much time at work? Can I have it all?”, David Coulthard (former F1 driver) explores and explains how he is constantly torn between the love of his work and job, and the love of his family and not spending as much time as he would like there.
Following the advert through to the end and the poignant questions of “Will you be ok when I am gone?” and “Have I been a good father?”, UBS subsequently states “For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone. Together we can find an answer.”
HARD SELL
Having recently conducted an audit of marketing materials across the private banking and wealth management sector, I am becoming more convinced that financial service firms broadly struggle to communicate their value to clients.
Clients do not consume financial service products because of return on investment. They do not even consume services because they are rational or logical choices. They choose them because they speak to the values and demands they face as individuals. They are emotional and deeply personal decisions.
UBS has taken a big step forward in recognising that by couching their campaign through the eyes and voices of clients.
Credit Suisse has also attempted to do something similar by featuring their clients and the dreams they had and how Credit Suisse has assisted them.
If one thing is for certain, it is that in an industry where products and services are commoditised, brand and communicating brand values will become more important – and for that reason alone, I doff my chapeau to UBS for beginning to grasp what wealth needs next.
James Horrax, senior analyst at wealth management think-tank Scorpio Partnership
