Travelers: The Umbrella Comes Home

The familiar red umbrella, first used by Travelers Insurance in an ad in the 1870s, found its way back home again when The Travelers Cos. bought the logo back from Citigroup.  The umbrella, so closely identified with Travelers, took a circuitous route, as the trademark had been involved in corporate mergers and spin offs before ultimately coming home. Travelers had merged in 1998 with Citicorp, and because the symbol is one of the most recognizable marks in the world, the newly merged organization put the umbrella image on a wide array of financial products.

Recently, after undergoing a 15-month examination of their branding strategies, Citigroup decided that the umbrella was just too closely identified with Travelers and insurance. St. Paul Travelers seized the opportunity and the company re-acquired the umbrella logo for an undisclosed sum, and renamed itself The Travelers Cos.

Today, the company is again popularly known as Travelers, and the red umbrella is back where it belongs. But was it really worth it to buy back a 137-year-old symbol?  Of course it was; the consumer recognition, brand equity and goodwill bound up in the red umbrella are almost priceless, in marketing terms.  At BrandLogic, we’re honored to have helped The Travelers Cos. welcome an old friend back in the fold, and to have worked with Travelers to reintegrate the prodigal umbrella into the company’s corporate brand identity program.

BrandLogic revamped the overall brand identity system and integrated a striking new umbrella graphic into all of Traveler’s collateral and interactive media. The umbrella graphic reinforces the protection of the umbrella while reserving the color red for the umbrella itself. Further, the BrandLogic team provided Travelers with usage guidelines and templates that can be automatically applied to new and existing content.

To ease implementation of the umbrella and refreshed identity, BrandLogic created a Web-based brand identity management system. Using our Brand Ensemble™ 4.0 platform, a data-driven, open standards-based Web site, BrandLogic was able to graphically demonstrate the building blocks of the Travelers identity (logo, typography, color, tone of voice, etc.), and produce the guidelines to clearly show how these elements are used across media applications.

The new brand identity system reflects the company’s heritage and lays a solid foundation for its future. Regardless of region, local language or application, the umbrella graphic is used on most communications materials making use of a wide color palette and consistent yet flexible look.