Norwich Union brand scrapped

The renowned brand, Norwich Union (NU), has gone for good today after it has been replaced by Aviva.

Last April, Aviva stunned the insurance sector by announcing it was to scrap the NU brand, which as been one of the country’s best-known financial services brands for over 200 years.

According to Aviva’s chief executive, Andrew Moss, the rebranding is part of a plan to unify the group under a single brand throughout the world.

In order to do this, the insurer spent around £10 million in advertising which saw celebrities including Bruce Willis, Ringo Starr and Elle Macpherson to boost awareness of the changes.

These celebrities have been chosen for the adverts because they changed their name to help them rise to fame.

Commenting on today’s change, Mr Moss said: “This is a key moment for Aviva. Over the past two years we have been working hard to bring Aviva businesses around the world closer together to maximise our full potential and to build the new Aviva around the needs of our customers.”

“For our 54,000 staff across the world we’re bringing them together as one team under a common identity and together we are totally committed to making sure our move to a global brand brings many positive changes for our customers,” added Mr Moss.

Aviva was formed by a merger of Norwich Union and CGU plc in 2000. The group was renamed Aviva in 2002.

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