Challenge

When UBS acquired Credit Suisse in 2023, it marked the largest financial services merger in history and a pivotal moment for the industry. With over 100,000 employees and two storied institutions coming together, the challenge extended far beyond operational integration.  

UBS needed to define a new era of leadership and reintroduce itself to the world with clarity, unity and purpose. This was not simply about merging two entities; it was about reinventing the brand to drive long-term growth and cultural transformation. 

The merger represented a defining moment, an opportunity to redefine UBS’s identity on the global stage. The real potential lay not in integrating two legacy brands under one identity, but in leveraging brand as the engine behind cultural alignment, business transformation and long-term success. 

Solutions

To guide UBS through this pivotal transformation, it was essential to anchor the brand in a bold, unifying concept. The breakthrough came in the form of Craft – a refined and emotionally resonant idea that bridged UBS’s legacy with its leadership ambitions. It centered employees around a shared purpose while signaling clarity, confidence and innovation to the world. Craft also reinforced UBS’s reputation for trust and deep expertise, its commitment to long-standing client relationships and staying true to its Swiss heritage. 

Prophet worked closely with UBS across four core workstreams: 

• Integration – Orchestrating the brand migration from Credit Suisse to UBS, from business cards and signage to dual-branded branches, ensuring clarity across more than 50 countries. 
• Strategy – Refreshing UBS’s global brand positioning, divisional value propositions and employer brand.  
• Transformation – Building a future-ready marketing function with combined teams, aligning global, divisional and local efforts around Prophet’s Uncommon Growth approach. 
• Activation
  • Bringing “Banking is our Craft” to life, UBS’s first global brand campaign since 2016. Developed by Prophet and executed in partnership with Publicis, the campaign spotlighted UBS’s distinct values, reintroducing the brand to clients, prospects and investors worldwide.
  • We complemented this campaign with the UBS House of Craft experience platform, which features events in partnership with luxury brands such as Dior, IWC and Laurent Ferrier. And in parallel, developed the UBS Craftmakers series to showcase the stories, and craft, of high-profile figures including Formula One drivers and cultural icons Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, stylist June Ambrose, neon artist Chankalun and composer and maestro Long Yu.  

Results

UBS set out to reshape the industry through the largest merger in financial services history — and emerged stronger, with renewed purpose and momentum. Prophet partnered with UBS on a brand-led transformation powered by clarity of purpose and shared values, designed for long-term relevance. In 2025, UBS recognized this work with a Brand Excellence Award, marking another milestone in our 20+ year partnership driving operational success and Uncommon Growth. 

“Craft isn’t just a theme — it’s the thread that connects everything we do. From Craftmakers to UBS House of Craft and Adventures in Craft, it all reflects one belief: excellence lives in the details.

For us, craft is how we build trust, spark ideas and show the world who UBS is.“

Andres Nicholls

Chief Creative Officer
Prophet

UBS House of Craft x Dior 

UBS House of Craft is a global platform that reimagines how UBS connects through culture, creativity and craft. In partnership with Dior, recent events in New York and Singapore celebrated the art of haute couture through an exclusive photo exhibition curated by Carine Roitfeld and Brigitte Niedermair, rare Dior couture pieces, a series of public talks by industry icons and live craft demonstrations from Dior Atelier artisans. 
 
Aligning Dior’s legacy of reinvention with UBS’s commitment to excellence, the collaboration created rare experiences for clients and sparked meaningful dialogue around the value of craft. 

UBS House of Craft presents Icons of Time 

An experiential exhibition celebrating the craft of watchmaking, created with Hodinkee and curated by founder Ben Clymer. Bringing together the world’s leading brands for the first time, the showcase highlighted innovation, excellence and craftsmanship through live demonstrations and talks from renowned watchmakers and collectors, inviting guests to discover the stories and innovations that have shaped modern horology. 

Result

UBS House of Craft has delivered both brand and business impact, reinforcing UBS’ position as a modern luxury leader and transforming how the brand shows up in the world.

UBS Craftmakers

We launched UBS Craftmakers, a content series sharing authentic stories from masters of craft and well as rising talent. Crafted in feel, UBS Craftmakers takes you deep into the mindset, rituals and ambition of these iconic individuals — from F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, to pioneering neon artist Chanklaun, award-winning costume designer June Ambrose and renowned Chinese conductor and artistic director Long Yu. 

Result

UBS Craftmakers has been some of the best performing content UBS has ever launched — with Lewis Hamilton’s film generating over 550,000 video views within 48 hours and 6.6 million social impressions. A recent episode featuring fashion designer Guo Pei and porcelain maker Master Tan won two Silver Dolphins at the Cannes Corporate Awards for its craftsmanship, vision and storytelling.

Solutions

To develop their vision for the future, CUNA Mutual Group partnered with Prophet, leveraging our interdisciplinary approach to craft a single-brand strategy, marrying the enterprise’s strong history with its growth ambitions. 

This cross-functional team started with a clarified purpose for the enterprise, including the brand’s promise and principles. Using this distilled North Star, the organization now had somewhere to turn to ensure product-level value propositions align with core values and its plans for the future. 

TruStage, CUNA Mutual Group’s successful insurance brand, emerged as the answer. TruStage illustrates how the company builds on trust, helping customers and the people they serve confidently navigate every stage of their financial journey.  

Prophet worked closely with the company as it activated the new TruStage brand, finding ways to elevate and expand this brand for all stakeholders. 

A core component of this approach involved equipping teams with the tools to pursue continued growth. That entailed bringing the new brand to life with comprehensive training to support employees. We created inspiring activations, designing immersive digital and physical employee experiences deployed during launch week, and giving them everything they need to carry the momentum forward. We also produced a comprehensive external brand campaign, including creative assets and tactical media plan, for the launch.  
 
All told, Prophet delivered:   

• Brand architecture and nomenclature strategy that supports a single brand strategy 
• Visual and verbal identity and core messaging for key audiences 
• A unified web experience that streamlined multiple unique web properties under one digital front door 
• A purposeful and holistic enterprise content strategy 
• Social channel architecture and taxonomy that clarifies and reinforces the single brand strategy  
• A first ever corporate brand campaign, including comprehensive creative development and media plan 
• An ongoing brand health tracking system 

Solutions

Prophet partnered with Swiss Re to redefine their brand strategy, including a refreshed brand positioning, an evolved visual identity and a first-in-kind audio brand. Collaborating with all corners of the global Swiss Re team – and with a deep understanding of the challenges that the brand needed to address – we set about developing a more relevant and differentiated position in the market.   

The refreshed brand positioning now reflects the dynamic, digital-first Swiss Re has become and demonstrates the firm’s growth ambition. This distinctive positioning brings its tech and innovation, data and insights and societal leadership strengths to the fore to better reflect new types of risk that clients face, as well as attract new talent and partners. 

To support the new brand strategy, there was a need to advance the visual identity to embrace all facets of the business and build a sense of ‘oneness’ in today’s digital world. Prophet partnered with the team to activate the identity with a suite of design assets including bespoke imagery, to act as a metaphor for how Swiss Re powers progress and their unique perspectives on the world. And – rather atypical for a business-to-business brand – an audio brand was introduced to strike the right tone and deliver a more contemporary expression of the brand. 

Solutions

Through our research, we found that younger Chinese consumers, between the ages of 30 to 45, feel anxious and uncertain about retirement.  

To understand consumer retirement needs, we spoke to people from different life stages and household statuses. From there, we identified four consumer insights that create distinctive market opportunities for MetLife China to develop its retirement value proposition: 

• Retirement preparation: First, retirement needs do not start in people’s 60s. Consumers want to start retirement planning early. Health issues often trigger consumers to start thinking about retirement planning. Protecting themselves from aging-related health issues has become a big part of their retirement preparation beyond financial preparation. 
• Retirement services: In China, while most retirees prefer to stay in their homes for retirement, there’s a shortage of retirement services and facilities options. Consumers are less worried about covering their daily living expenses and medical bills and are instead concerned about access to quality services and facilities.  
• Family support: For Chinese consumers, retirement is not an individual need but requires planning as a family. Most of them need to ensure support for their elderly parents before they can think about retirement preparation for themselves which still requires not only financial support but also quality retirement and health service support. 
• Mental health: Retirement is more than just financial stability. It is also about the long-established life rhythm and goals. Many Chinese consumers feel a loss of identity and meaning after they retire. A critical part of ensuring individuals thrive in retirement is to figure out how to be mentally prepared and how to leverage the abundant free time to explore new hobbies, expand their horizons and socialize. 

After gaining a deep understanding of these needs, our team worked with MetLife to articulate its retirement value proposition– “Helping you and your family achieve total preparation towards a fulfilling life post-retirement.” We also worked with MetLife’s key stakeholders to co-create the product, service and experience of the retirement solution and developed a clear roadmap to bring the retirement solution to life and for future upgrades. 

Next, our design team created graphics to bring the value proposition to life visually by developing detailed design guidelines for the retirement solution to ensure its visual identity system is compatible with MetLife’s master brand visual system and architecture. Additionally, we have designed brochures and other communication materials for internal and external communications.