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Indianapolis-based OneAmerica is now doing business under the name OneAmerica Financial, the company announced Monday.
As part of a larger effort the company is calling a “brand refresh,” OneAmerica Financial has also updated its logo and will launch a national advertising campaign—the first such campaign in the 147-year-old company’s history.
The full official name of the company is OneAmerica Financial Partners Inc., but until now it had used only the first word of its name in its branding.
The rebranding aims to address a key challenge—public misperception as to what the company actually does.
OneAmerica Financial offers a range of financial products including insurance, annuities and workplace retirement plans. The company reported annual revenue of $2.8 billion in 2022 and topped IBJ’s 2023 list of largest privately held companies in Indianapolis, with just over 2,500 employees.
But the name OneAmerica didn’t clearly convey this, leading to some misunderstandings about what the company actually does. In adding the word “Financial” to its name, the company aims to clear up the confusion, said OneAmerica Financial Chief Marketing Officer Kelley Gay.
In doing market research as part of the rebranding effort, the company talked to people who were not already familiar with OneAmerica.
Some people thought OneAmerica was a bank or a government contractor, Gay said. Others confused the financial firm with the One America News Network.
“Our job is to make sure that we are known in Indy, and people understand who we are, what we do and how we do it,” Gay said.
OneAmerica Financial’s products are sold through a national network of financial professionals, and until now the company has never run an ad campaign aimed directly at consumers.
But starting next week, the company will commence a broadcast and online advertising campaign that launches first in the Indianapolis market before rolling out nationwide.
OneAmerica Financial is also a sponsor of USA Swimming’s U.S. Olympic team trials, which will provide another opportunity to showcase the company’s new name. The swimming trials take place June 15-23 in Indianapolis.
And the company will replace the sign atop its eponymous OneAmerica Tower, the 38-floor downtown building the company owns at One American Square. The date for that sign swap hasn’t yet been set, Gay said.
One thing that won’t be changing is its long-running, streetside message board, which features jokes, puns and quips that change on a weekly basis, spelled out in blocky black letters that are placed by hand.
“That’s a really important part of our history that we’re going to continue to carry forward as we move ahead,” Gay said.
In fact, the company hinted at its upcoming rebranding on its sign last week, with a vague teaser message that said “NEW YEAR NEW ME COMING SOON.”
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really reinventing the wheel with that name change.
Some would said… revolutionary
I don’t think they were trying to reinvent anything. They were trying to have their logo/marketing clarify to consumers what the financial representatives who sell their products already know…this is who we are, and what we do. The brand was already successful, it just needed clarification to make it more successful. Does Elevance Health mean more to you than Anthem? Does it tell you more, or does the name leave you wondering what they do? What is an Elevance, anyway?