The Challenge
While UBS has high awareness as a global financial services brand, they are less well-known for its sustainable investment solutions.
With 150bn USD in ESG AuM and 30bn USD in sustainable ETFs, over 50% of which are customised, USB's innovative approach to passive sustainable investment solutions is not widely recognised amongst professional investors.
And as an early entrant to sustainable investment, UBS has over 20 years of experience in sustainable investing under its belt.
UBS Asset Management needed to raise its profile amongst institutional and professional investors, who were unaware that UBS is an innovative pioneer of sustainable ETF and rules-based investment solutions.
We needed to raise awareness across 21 markets to a broad range of institutional and wholesale investors.
The Solution
Institutional and wholesale professional investors are a diverse audience with different maturity levels regarding sustainable investing. To tackle this diversity, we created three audience segments; the Emergers, Developers and Leaders, which allowed us to plan customer journeys and create advertising and content that resonated with the audience, whatever their stage in the customer journey.
With these audiences in mind, we developed a creative campaign that worked through the marketing funnel from a universal high-level creative concept of ‘Investing in Progress’ to content and messaging for our three segments - from high-level brand films, white papers, and podcasts with ‘next level’ expertise.
Creatively groundbreaking for UBS, our use of 3D environments combined with iconic red 2D illustrated animation created cut-through in crowded financial services markets.
The campaign included circa 65 messages and executions for paid media, alongside podcasts, hero and supporting video content, and design support for UBS internal content teams.
The Results
The campaign's first month smashed expectations, with the paid animated elements significantly outperforming comparative financial services campaigns. With CTR’s x2.5 times benchmark, alongside category-leading viewability scores.
Alongside this, independent qualitative research summarised the creative: "The sense of UBS as an agency of change - as central to the solutions to those problems – committed to progress and to building brighter futures – was widely recognised and appreciated.”
We're also delighted that the campaign won awards at both the Financial Services Forum Marketing Effectiveness awards and The Drum Digital Industries awards for best B2B.
Independent research confirmed, “The simple modernity of the artwork underscores UBS’s commitment to progress against the grey of the ‘old world establishment”, which is central to achieving the brief of raising awareness of UBS as a pioneer and innovator in sustainable investing.
The campaign included different messages that spoke to the three segments of sustainable investment maturity.
Platform-appropriate formats and messaging for paid, owned and earned channels supported the whole marketing funnel from awareness to conversion.
This 'full-funnel approach' created a cohesive campaign that created cut-through in a crowded communications landscape.