NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AST, a leading financial technology and professional services firm, today announced that it has won a 2018 REBRAND 100® Global Award for its recent brand repositioning. AST worked closely with Starfish Integrated Brand Experiences to execute the rebranding project.
The award recognizes AST’s success in creating a single brand identity that reflects the strategic integration of multiple business lines to serve the broad spectrum of issuers’ ownership needs. The successful repositioning embodies AST’s evolution as a leading financial technology company and its ongoing investment in providing the best possible support to its clients. AST put forward a new brand name, brand architecture and tagline, “Maintain Your Momentum,” all of which align with the company’s commitment to transforming the business and the industry.
Under the leadership of AST CEO Brian Longe, the new brand was developed to highlight the company’s significant expansion of its corporate mission and investment in leading technology initiatives as well as the thoughtful extension of business lines and services in recent years. Formerly known as American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, AST was originally founded as a transfer agent in 1971 and, over time, expanded to provide the full range of services issuers require to ‘maintain momentum’ throughout their corporate lifecycle. AST set out to create a brand that would echo this evolution from a transactional administration firm to a strategic advisory firm providing comprehensive ownership services.
The REBRAND 100® Global Awards recognize excellence in brand repositioning. REBRAND analyzes the before and after state of the brand, and assesses its impact on strategic business goals and target markets. Organizations representing 27+ countries and 29+ industries entered the annual awards program, which was judged by an international panel of 10 industry experts. Award winners span a diverse set of markets and include notable organizations such as Cadillac, Siemens and AT&T. Once a year, REBRAND selects a new panel of international business, marketing and design executives to judge the competition, with the ultimate goal of showcasing the most effective brand transformations to the world. A complete list of award recipients is available on the REBRAND website.
“We are honored to have been selected for this award alongside so many prestigious organizations. It is a testament to the team’s dedication and alignment in communicating the combined strength of our services in helping companies maintain their forward momentum,” said Sara Walsh, Senior Vice President of Marketing at AST. “The AST community and the marketplace at large have truly embraced the new brand, recognizing that it is in step with the value we deliver. Beyond refreshed colors and design, this rebranding epitomizes a strategic investment and broader cultural shift in the way we support our customers to help them succeed.”
In collaboration with Starfish, AST’s new brand strategy was first realized in a restructured website, brand identity and logo. The website communicates the consolidated organization by providing a centralized format for an improved user experience and a contemporary design that offers additional tools and resources. The all-new brand identity and logo leverage a warm, vibrant color palette that aims to reinforce the company’s energy. Details about AST’s rebrand, including a slideshow of before and after photos, can be found here.
“It has been a pleasure working side-by-side with AST to deliver on its vision for the new brand, and it is exciting to see how it has come to life,” said Jeff Negrin, Managing Director at Starfish, who led the project at the agency. “AST has a unique position in the industry, and it has been extremely rewarding to be able to represent that through the lens of a new brand experience.”
About AST
AST was originally founded as a transfer agent over 45 years ago. Through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, AST has pioneered a new model of integrated ownership services and financial technology in the industry. AST affiliates include AST Trust Company (Canada), D.F. King & Co, Inc. and Donlin, Recano & Company, Inc.
Today, AST offers a full scope of ownership services that include registry services, corporate proxy solicitation and advisory solutions, employee plan services, information agent, mutual fund proxy solicitation, shareholder identification, asset recovery and investment management offerings. For more information, please visit www.astfinancial.com.
About Starfish
Starfish is a branding and creative communications agency founded on the philosophy that the brand experience is the brand. It is our strong belief that a brand is the sum total of all of the interactions a customer has with a brand, and we work tirelessly to ensure that all of a brand’s expressions are in sync. We work along the marketing continuum from brand strategy to creative development and activation. We believe that the most effective marketing starts with a sound brand strategy and employ proprietary methodologies to achieve an extraordinary level of brand integration. In business since 2002, our intellectual curiosity drives our success, and we are famous for our client retention. For more information, please visit starfishco.com.
