The campaign is based on a traffic light going from red -- the colour of the Japanese flag -- to green to signify Japan's re-emergence as a choice investment market after nearly 15 years of economic stagnation.
"We needed to signpost a big change in confidence," said David Tang, managing director of DDB Singapore, which created the campaign.
UOB has been an early bird in creating the Japan Fund. Its rivals have included the market in their basket of funds, but have yet to develop a separate product for the recovering Japanese economy. In the past year, banks have mainly sold capital guaranteed funds, offering modest returns, as the Iraq war and terrorism reduced the appetite for risk.
DDB was tasked with swift roll-out on a limited budget, based on the agency's 'ROI advertising' promise. "TVC production was always deemed prohibitive, but we found an elegant, simple and affordable idea to make a television and print campaign out of it," said Tang, adding that the fund had generated a return "far outperforming the benchmark".
UOB signposts change to sell new Japan Fund
UOB, the city's third-largest bank, has launched a television and print campaign to market its Japan Fund, the first dedicated offer for the recovering economy in the past 12 months.