With a streamlined logo, bold colours and an anthropomorphised slinky, Halifax brings an impactful relaunch of its brand to life in the struggle against being forgotten.

A new marketing campaign advertising Halifax mortgages has arrived alongside a decisive change in direction for their marketing strategy, including the new strapline ‘Halifax makes it happen’.

The short advert shows a slinky exploring a newly-bought house and filling it with disco lights and music.

The spot was created by adam&eveDDB and shows off all the features of Halifax’s more modern approach to branding.

Their trademark X logo has been set in a more modern, straight-edged font, while brand colours have changed to be bolder.

These design features will soon be visible in Halifax branches and online, as well as on correspondence and collateral.

The decisions have been taken to make sure Halifax, whose heritage reaches back to 1853, “fits in a digital world.”

Halifax has chosen to revamp its look – losing the association with classic cartoons and films previously featured in its adverts – even while its reputation is good and its brand recognition high.

There is general acknowledgement that with the rise of challenger banks, posing a significant threat to the established names, modernisation is urgent.

Richard Warren, Director of Communications and Marketing at Lloyds Banking Group that owns Halifax, told Marketing Week they were modernising while honouring Halifax’s “friendly, upbeat, human brand.

“It’s a straightforward brand relaunch building on the equity [of Halifax]. Halifax has always been an upbeat joyful brand and we will absolutely keep that but just do it in a more modern way.

“We’re more confident that we’re meeting our customers’ needs and the fintechs coming in has helps us in terms of everyone is competing a lot more intensely than has been the case before and that’s forced banks to be innovative and do more things for their customers.

“There’s nothing broken, we just think with all the FinTechs, people like Monzo and Atom and Starling, it’s incredibly important that you don’t be seen as the old guard and you keep as relevant, contemporary and modern as you possibly can.”