At the turn of the millennium, American Express faced numerous challenges: although the company practically defined the credit-card industry, its customers were skewing older, and it had lost ground to competitors in attracting younger applicants. Inconsistent branding and a fragmented product portfolio whittled away at the company's prestige; American Express knew it was time to re-invigorate its brand promise of "world-class service and personal recognition" and engage a new generation of consumers through a broad array of integrated, branded services.

Reinvigorating the American Express brand,

Siegel+Gale has been a trusted partner of American Express for the past 10 years. In this time, we've partnered on more than 1,000 projects, including positioning, brand architecture, naming, logo and identity system development, card design, innovation, retail and environmental design, and interactive strategy and design. Today, we continue to help American Express define and evolve its identity in new and innovative areas of business, such as alternative payment methods and fee-based service initiatives.

Five years after Siegel+Gale first joined forces with American Express, the total number of cards issued had grown an astonishing 41%. American Express Blue exploded onto the marketplace-setting a new standard with 2 million new cards issued in its first two years-its runaway success helping to reverse losses to MasterCard and Visa in the desirable 25- to 34-year-old demographic. Our efforts also enabled American Express to build more than 110 successful co-branding partnerships in 120 countries.

We at Siegel+Gale are proud to be an Agency of Record for American Express. Wherever around the globe American Express takes its iconic brand, we will continue to be there to listen, to counsel and to inspire.