Scroll to the bottom for images from the campaign.
The most image-conscious people in the world – celebrities – regularly put their trust in her. Now, photographer Annie Leibovitz has been hired to help burnish the image of UBS Group AG.
The Swiss bank on Tuesday released a new worldwide advertising campaign. It features photographed portraits by Ms. Leibovitz of entrepreneurs who are asking big questions such as, "Is my business growing fast enough?" "Am I a good father?" and "Can I truly make a difference?" The stills will appear in banner ads on a variety of websites, in print and in outdoor ads. The digital-heavy campaign also includes video profiles of those entrepreneurs.
Other video ads contrast the emphasis on photography with text-only questions such as "Is this the life I dreamed of as a little girl?" and "What shall we name the twins?" accompanied by emotional music. The tagline for the campaign is, "Together we can find an answer."
The emotional tone of the campaign is clearly designed to help Zurich-based UBS recover from scandals that have dominated headlines about the brand.
In May, UBS said it would pay $545-million (U.S.) in fines related to manipulation of foreign exchange rates, pleading guilty to wire fraud and rigging the Libor (London interbank offered rate) benchmark interest rate. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Barclays PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland were also hit with fines.
Earlier this month, former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes was sentenced to 14 years in jail for conspiring to rig Libor rates.
UBS would not respond to questions about the cost of the campaign over all, or of hiring Ms. Leibovitz, beyond confirming that it is a "multimillion-pound" investment. A spokesperson added that a central focus of the campaign is to "spend smartly," and that this will be "the most efficient brand campaign in UBS's recent history."
More than 70 per cent of the media spending on ads will go toward digital and social media channels, in a bid to better target the ads to their intended audience, and to make changes to the campaign based on how the various elements perform.
It is the banking firm's first global brand campaign since 2009, when the financial crisis era tagline was, "We will not rest."
In a statement, the bank said the images from Ms. Leibovitz would refresh the brand "with a contemporary look and feel."
"The brand campaign is an expression of the successful strategic transformation UBS has undergone over the past four years," group chief executive officer Sergio Ermotti said in a statement. "Reflecting the strategic transformation through our branding gives us additional momentum."
The campaign also presents a new "sonic logo" – music that will accompany the brand advertising – and what it says is an overall "brighter more modern" look for the brand communications, designed to fit better with digital media.
In addition to the first videos released on Tuesday, starting in October and over the next two years, the bank will release video interviews with more than 40 Nobel Prize-winning economists. (There seem to be not many more than 40 of them alive; a spokesperson said details were not available but that these are prerecorded and "UBS have the historic records.")
Beyond the advertising, the bank has also commissioned a new project from Ms. Leibovitz exploring "the changes in the roles of women today." The portrait project will tour 10 cities next year and will be part of the UBS art collection.
It is not the first time Ms. Leibovitz has been hired to shoot advertising images. In the past, the photographer has worked with companies including Walt Disney Co., Corcoran Group Real Estate, Ann Taylor, Louis Vuitton, Dove, Gap Inc., and others.
Click or swipe to see images from the campaign.