"Since 1999, ooba Home Loans has helped make the dream of homeownership a reality for over 600 000 South African families. The new brand strategy is a tribute to the power of homeownership and a recognition of the brand’s rich heritage," says Head of Marketing for ooba Group, Harsha Prag. 

Against this background, the 25-year milestone was the perfect opportunity to reinvigorate the brand through an updated brand strategy that best reflects its purpose and promise to its customers, says the group.

"We understand that some of our clients are the first in their family to ever own a home and that for most people, it's the biggest investment that they will make in their lifetime," Prag says. "We feel privileged to walk the journey with them and felt that it was time to showcase the heart behind the brand."

The brand refresh was driven by ooba Group's internal marketing team and brought to life by independent integrated marketing agency, Autonomous Agency. "Autonomous Agency clearly understood the brief and how to meaningfully connect brands to their customers," says Prag.

Speaking about the success of the campaign, the CEO of Autonomous Agency, Sarel Delport, says, "We know ooba Group as the most trusted and experienced name in the residential home loan sector, and our goal was to reinforce the strong emotional connection between the brand, its salespeople and its customers while maintaining the essence and familiarity of the brand."

According to Delport, this meant keeping ooba Group's signature green colour while updating it to a more vibrant hue, in combination with a revitalised secondary colour palette and font sets. 

Delport says, "From there, we saw the opportunity to simplify the logo by bringing it into a more contemporary space. Significantly, a heart has been added to the logo, echoing the impact that a home purchase can make."

The brand's new tagline, 'Home Sweet Home Loan' was born as an all-encompassing tagline that emulates the ooba Home Loan's mission of empowering South Africans to own their own homes, says the group. 

"The tagline perfectly reflects the company’s purpose while leaning into all the possibilities that come from the prospect of owning a new home," adds Prag.

Rhys Dyer, CEO of ooba Group commends the internal marketing team and their partnership with the Autonomous Agency team for bringing the new vision for the brand to life. 

"Our home loans team goes above and beyond, and it comes from the heart. Now we are finally translating that as part of our new brand strategy. It's been a fantastic journey for our internal team and our independent agency partner; together, we have evolved the brand identity to better represent what the ooba Group is today," concludes Dyer. 

For more information, visit www.ooba.co.za. 

*Image courtesy of contributor