BBVA celebrates one-year anniversary of its new brand identity

In less than a year, the new BBVA brand identity has made great strides. The expansion of the brand is clearly evident in its presence across the bank's corporate buildings, technology platforms and applications, branch offices, advertising, and the numerous recognitions it has received from the business community.

The new global brand represents more than a business milestone; it is a sign of new strength. As such, it has unified the customer offering across its different markets, creating a single and unique value proposition: an unparalleled user experience that helps its customers manage their finances and improve their financial health, and always leveraging technology and data.

BBVA Group Executive Chairman Carlos Torres Vila summarized the achievement at the annual results presentation last January: “We are now one BBVA, with a modern, fresh, and dynamic logo that represents new opportunities.” He also stressed the bank’s pioneering spirit in the area of digitization and the pursuit of cutting-edge solutions, an ethos which is perfectly reflected in the single, unified brand.

After the employee presentation in April 2019 and the customer debut in June of the same year, BBVA’s new brand appeared across urban landscapes in major capitals like Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Lima, and Madrid, an achievement made possible by the 4,000-strong global team. A significant portion of the bank’s digital assets — those assets like the mobile banking applications and the transactional websites for both consumer and business customers — were also rebranded in record time.

Not surprisingly, the ongoing roll-out of the new identity is facing some delay as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but planned activities are gradually resuming. To date, more than 82 percent of the bank’s corporate buildings are already outfitted with the new brand image, as are almost 80 percent of the branch offices, and more than 90 percent of ATMs worldwide.

A successful take-off in Latin America

The re-branding kicked off in Latin America in the midst of a very digital year for BBVA: that year BBVA customers were also able to take advantage of new financial solutions and products driven by exponential technologies: artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning. Of note are services like BBVA SOS in Mexico, which helps customers report car insurance claims; the consolidation of the money transfer service Lukita in Peru, and the Mis Viajes (My Trips) service in Uruguay.

The BBVA global brand, designed especially for the growing digital landscape, made its debut at one of the most important events in Argentina: the Martín Fierro awards, one of the most watched broadcasts in the country. Since then, the new brand has been rolled out across the rest of the region with notable achievements in countries like Mexico, where almost all of the bank’s corporate offices and ATMs have been upgraded with the bank's new identity. The launch of the new image has also been successfully completed in all the corporate and branch offices in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Switzerland.

Other markets such as Peru, Colombia, and the United States continue with the rebranding at a good pace, with important transformations taking place across the branch offices, at the regional corporate headquarters, and across the extensive ATM networks. In Peru, for example, the roll-out of the new brand has been completed at the bank headquarters in Lima; more than 80 percent of Peru’s branch offices and 60 percent of the ATM network have adopted the new brand. In Colombia, 86 percent of the bank’s corporate buildings and ATMs have already been updated with the new image, while more than 80 percent of the branches have completed the rebranding process. Despite interruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, the roll-out of the new brand has made steady progress, with half the corporate buildings, 60 percent of branch offices, and 80 percent of ATMs having completed the rebranding. Finally, in Spain the new brand has been rolled out to more than 90 percent of corporate offices and more than 75 percent of branch offices.

An internationally recognized new brand

On the threshold of its first anniversary, the creation and launch of BBVA's new global identity has been well-received by the business and marketing communities. The international brand specialist firm, Interbrand, endorsed BBVA's decision to dispense with local names as the right thing to do. The firm also thinks “the bank's corporate identity visually present with the brand's promise, ‘creating opportunities’” is a positive development. In fact, it rates BBVA as the fourth most valuable brand in Spain.

Similarly, Brand Finance also lauded the unification of BBVA's brand identity, emphasizing how powerful it is as the strongest Spanish brand. Recently, Spain’s Association of Communication Executives presented the bank with the Ramón de Corral award for the Group's One BBVA  campaign as the best holistic initiative for organizational change.

Rob Brown, BBVA's global CMO, states that “the decision to put digital at the center of our branding strategy has allowed us to operate and work more than ever as One Team. BBVA now looks, feels, and sounds the same.”