First published in B&T on 5 September, 2025.

Rebranding one of Australia’s most trusted and iconic brands is a rare but exciting challenge, writes Jane McGovern, chief customer and strategy officer, Acenda.

How do you transform a trusted brand with more than 135 years of heritage in a way that respects its legacy but will continue to connect with Australians for generations to come? Throw in a pending merger with Resolution Life Australasia – a union that will soon create one of Australia’s largest life insurance businesses – and you have an appreciation of the scale of our challenge.

How did we arrive at Acenda?

For many Australians, life insurance is synonymous with death. In creating Acenda, we wanted to flip this narrative to focus on the confidence and protection life insurance provides when you’re alive and well, empowering you to live life to the fullest.

Our objective was to go from being a passive brand to a more active brand. A brand that is glass half full rather than glass half empty.

Our research with customers, employees, superannuation funds and financial advisers found the existing attributes of the MLC brand contributed to a strong sense of trust. However, there was an opportunity to support our growth ambitions with the new brand.

Three names were shortlisted and tested to assess their distinctiveness, impact and flexibility, and extensive brand market research confirmed the strength of the new Acenda name.

Life insurance in Australia is a crowded category that arguably lacks any strong brand differentiation. Our research showed the Acenda brand is strong and distinctive and well positioned to stand out.

What’s in the name?

The Acenda name symbolises new beginnings, ascension and progress, while maintaining the trust of a brand that has more than 135 years of pedigree and heritage. The use of the bird logo also respects the heritage of our primary shareholder, Nippon Life Insurance, Japan’s largest life insurer. In Japanese culture, the bird symbolises longevity, luck, love, courage, happiness, and spiritual connection; attributes that reflect how we want our customers to feel.

This focus on customer is integral to the Acenda brand which blends vitality with trustworthiness through four interwoven traits: uplifting, energetic, strong and reliable.

Strength and reliability are particularly important to our customers who want to know we will be here for them when they need us, which could be many years from now. They want to know that we are strong and dependable and, importantly, we are trusted.

How is Acenda different?

Our rebrand to Acenda is about more than just a new name and a tagline. It’s about creating a brand that supports Acenda’s bold growth ambitions and reignites a very traditional category to sit up and pay attention.

The willingness of Australians to have a crack at life is a defining characteristic of our nation’s heritage and culture. At Acenda we want to empower Australians to live life with confidence, knowing they are protected and will be cared for.

To achieve this, we must become a more active ingredient in people’s lives. The value of life insurance and retirement solutions is to help people live empowered, more abundant lives.

This is a key point of difference. We are focused on our customers and innovating our products and services to meet their evolving needs.

This laser focus on our customers flows through to everything we do from simplifying our underwriting processes through to how we handle customer claims with empathy and care.

What’s next?

In rebranding to Acenda, we faced into a huge challenge of leaving behind a trusted and iconic brand to create a new one that would be enduring for many years to come.

We are proud of the journey so far as Acenda now comes to life embodying the uplifting, energetic, strong and reliable organisation that we are.

There is a lot more to do to build the brand but watch this space as we awaken a sector to be more relevant and more connected to the character and soul of Australia.

And empower Australians to take life on.