Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company is replacing its “blue frame” brand mark—a mark whose meaning and logic escaped even Nationwide employees at times—with a refreshed version of its longstanding “N and Eagle” brand mark and will apply the new mark across all its businesses, the company said in a release.
The company currently operates under multiple brand names, including Nationwide Insurance, Allied Insurance, Harleysville Insurance, Nationwide Financial, Scottsdale Insurance, Crestbrook Insurance and Veterinary Pet Insurance.
The change will begin this week and continue over the next 18 months. It will affect advertising assets, branding on and in company-owned real estate, digital platforms like Nationwide.com, sales collateral, agency signage and other communications channels.
“Customers in many areas aren’t aware of our strength, offerings and size because we feature so many brands that can appear to be unrelated,” said Nationwide CEO Steve Rasmussen, in a release.
The updated version of the Nationwide N and Eagle brand mark “harkens back to the company’s heritage and the famous 50-year-old tag line, ‘Nationwide is on your side,’” the release said. The new logo is a freshed version of a logo that Nationwide adopted in 1955. According to a Nationwide spokesperson, it was replaced in 1999 with the blue picture frame, which was intended to “symbolize ease of access and customization,” thus inviting customers to picture themselves in the frame, much as they might buy Time magazine “Person of the Year” frames and put their own pictures in it.
On Sept. 4, Nationwide’s new NFL advertising, featuring Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, airs and will include the new brand mark. The company will also feature the refreshed brand mark on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 car at the Richmond International Raceway NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sept. 6.
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