For the first time in 40 years, Uniglobe has a new look. The refreshed brand identity was unveiled first on Monday by Uniglobe (Eastern Canada) to a select group of trade partners, agency owners and media in Toronto and rolls out across the world starting today (Wednesday).
Uniglobe regional president for Eastern Canada Dean Dacko declared the occasion a “monumental day,” noting that the new image for the corporate travel specialist is the first since the founding of the company in 1979, but also importantly reflects a new vision for Uniglobe, which started in Vancouver, but now has 3,800 team members in 60 countries (serving 90 countries) around the world.
And while extremely successful throughout its first four decades, Dacko noted that “the pace of business is changing and evolving and getting much different virtually every day… the operative word is change and it’s not getting slower. It’s getting faster.” As such, he says, it is incumbent for all companies to “keep up,” not least through the continued evolution and embracing of technology.
Moreover, it is important for companies to have an image that customers recognize as “fresh, modern and current… and that is going to deliver to me a product and service that is going meet my needs today and not what it was 20 years ago.”
Another objective for Uniglobe is to stand out in a “cluttered marketplace” with a visual identity that “pops… in the sea of sameness” that consumers experience.
To that end, the company embarked on a two-year process that included conducting internal and external focus groups, and engaging research and branding experts to “help enunciate the brand’s well-established character and place within the industry (and) bring the brand family into the future while retaining that iconic teal that has so long been associated with Uniglobe.”
The result is a new slim, sophisticated and “professional” logo that features the number one in place of the “i” in black or white Uniglobe and the word “Travel,” along with the dot on the 1, in signature teal. A new tagline, “Travel well,” will also supplant the former “Travel. Simplified.”
As of today, Uniglobe’s new look is evident on its web and mobile sites and will update all existing collateral in the coming months; agency owners will have a year to replace their storefront signs – dovetailing with the 40th anniversary of the opening of Uniglobe’s first agency in 1980.
“At Uniglobe, our vision is to be the unrivalled travel partner of choice for small and medium businesses,” says company founder and CEO U. Gary Charlwood. “Our new brand reflects our continued commitment to innovation while providing our clients with an elevated service experience that puts them first. To succeed in today’s travel industry, it’s all about being engaged, knowledgeable, creative problem-solvers, with the ability to see possibilities and solutions others can’t.”
“We’re really, really, really thrilled,” says Dacko of the new branding. “It took us 40 years to get here, but we think that now that we’ve arrived, we’re pretty happy with the result… We think it’s fresh, we think it’s really modern, we think its relevant in today’s environment, and we think it’s impactful.”
And even more to the point, observes Dana Gain of Air Canada Vacations, who attended the reveal, “It’s super impressive!”
