MANILA, Philippines — Chinabank has launched a bra nd refresh program and digital campaign to evolve the 103-year-old bank’s brand and image, making it more resonant and engaging to a new generation of customers.
The bank replaced the signages of its head office and branches in an ongoing rollout, released on social media its new ad and new jingle Focused on You, and placed billboard ads in EDSA-Magallanes and SM MOA Globe featuring its first-ever brand ambassador, Miss Universe Philippines 2023 Michelle Dee, a third-generation member of Chinabank’s founding family.
The brand refresh builds on Chinabank’s solid foundation as a trusted bank with a keen understanding of its clients’ needs in an evolving landscape. The bank’s new tagline “Focused on You,” which is also the title of its new jingle and digital campaign, reflects its firm commitment to serving its customers and putting their best interests in mind.
For the last 103 years, the bank has helped tycoons when they were just newbies, billionaires when they only had a billion to one shot. To this day, the bank gives the same focus and attention to all its customers, not caring whether they are big or small, but only seeing the size of their dreams. The new logo, with its stylized “CBC” monogram, a symbol that embodies stability and simplicity, gives Chinabank a younger, more agile and dynamic look.
“Chinabank has been growing and transforming through the years, in step with the times and more im portantly, in line with the changing needs and perceptions of our customers,” Chinabank Investor and Corporate Relations Group head Gerald Florentino said.
“We believe this brand refresh will develop the Chinabank brand in the right way and enable us to deepen existing relationships and connect with a broader market.”
Established in 1920, Chinabank has been known as a businessman’s bank with a strong affiliation with the Chinese Filipino community. While maintaining its deep ties with this niche market, Chinabank has grown into a strong and stable universal bank—now the country’s fourth largest private domestic bank—offering a full suite of banking products and services for corporate, commercial and retail customers.
As it pur sues its growth plans, embarking on a digital transformation, the bank’s board and management also saw the need to revitalize Chinabank’s brand and image.
“How you take the brand forward is vital to any company’s future success. Even if you’re already well established, you have to find fresh approaches to re-engage your l oyal customers and build connections with new ones,” Chinabank Marketing Communications Department head Aileen Vallesteros said.
“Our ‘Focused on You’ campaign reinforces the brand’s strengths and makes Chinabank more relatable to the new generati on of customers.”
The whole brand refresh process went smoothly, Vallesteros noted, because the bank’s chairman Hans Sy and president and CEO Romy Uyan were on board and hands on, from the choice of the brand ambassador to the messaging and design. With the leaders’ buy-in, everyone in the bank embraced the change.
Multi-awarded advertising agencies Yonder and TBWA were tapped to develop the bank’s new logo and creatives, respectively.
With its distinctive red brand color, modern and vibrant aesthetics, and compelling new message, complemented by the power of celebrity endorsement, Chinabank is poised to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Editor’s Note: This is a press release from SM Prime Holdings. It is published by the Advertising Content Team that is independent of our Editorial newsroom.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held a rare press conference Thursday, admitting “shortcomings” after his party’s recent electoral defeat, and laying out policies on issues from the country’s low birthrate to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The press conference was the president’s first in nearly two years, and comes after his party suffered a drubbing in legislative elections last month.
On Ukraine, Yoon vowed to keep strong ties with Kyiv while maintaining a smooth relationship with Russia, ruling out direct weapons shipments and telling reporters that it was his “firm stance” not to send lethal arms to countries at war.
On South Korea’s birthrate, one of the world’s lowest, he unveiled plans to create a ministry to tackle the issue, which he described as “a national emergency”.
His party’s defeat in the April 10 parliamentary elections prompted calls for Yoon to change his policy direction and leadership style, as his approval ratings languish less than halfway through his five-year term.
Yoon said he has “pondered a lot over what have been the shortcomings” of his administration.
“Communication to explain policy drives and the extent of change people have felt has fallen short,” he said.
Yoon won the 2022 presidential election by the narrowest margin in South Korean history, and his term has been hampered by a series of scandals and his party’s lack of a parliamentary majority.
The president also issued an apology for what he called the “unwise conduct” of his wife, first lady Kim Keon Hee, after hidden camera footage last year appeared to show her accepting a luxury handbag in violation of government ethics rules.
But Yoon said the opposition’s call for a special probe into the first lady was “politically motivated”.
His plan to fix the country’s woeful birthrate comes after it hit a record low in 2023, despite the government pouring billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability.
Yoon said he would ask lawmakers to cooperate “to set up the Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter Planning”,
“We will be creating a low-birth planning department in order to establish a more aggressive and powerful control tower,” he said.
“In order to overcome the low birth rate, which can be considered a national emergency, we will fully mobilise all of the state’s capabilities,” he added.
The country’s fertility rate -– the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime -– dropped to 0.72 in 2023, down nearly eight percent from 2022, according to preliminary data from Statistics Korea in February.
That is far below the 2.1 children needed to maintain the current population of 51 million, which at these rates will nearly halve by the year 2100, experts estimate.
Yoon, who has taken a tough line with the nuclear-armed North, said his country’s ties with Moscow had been strained by what Seoul and ally Washington say are arms shipments from North Korea to Russia.
“North Korea’s export of offensive weapons not only supports the illegal waging of war in relation to Ukraine, but also clearly violates UN Security Council sanctions resolutions related to North Korea’s nuclear weapons,” Yoon said.
Despite tensions with Moscow over the purported arms shipments, Yoon said he aims to “manage our relationship with Russia as smoothly as possible”.
But he said Seoul would not be revising its longstanding policy of not selling arms into active conflicts, which has prevented it from providing military aid to Ukraine.
Seoul has long sought to join the ranks of the world’s top arms exporters — aiming to be the fourth largest, behind the United States, Russia and France — something that is now possible, industry research indicates.