Inside The Red Thread: A Global Case Study in Creative Collaboration
How UBS Asset Management, UNIT9 and TOML turned a complex global thought-leadership platform into a connected experience across 15 cities.
Turning UBS Asset Management’s The Red Thread into a live global platform was never going to be simple. Designed as a thought-leadership series spanning multiple markets, the ambition went far beyond staging conferences. The challenge was to create a connected experience that could speak to a sophisticated financial audience across regions: while remaining locally relevant, strategically sharp, and creatively coherent. The goal was to create a platform where conversations about sustainable investing, geopolitical change, and long-term economic shifts could take place in a meaningful way.
The campaign was shortlisted as a finalist at The Drum Awards for B2B Thought Leadership, acknowledging the strength of the strategy and execution behind the series. And also received a 2025 Financial Content Marketing Award from the Gramercy Institute for its European edition, recognizing excellence in financial content marketing. The award was judged by a panel of marketing leaders from major financial, media, and marketing organizations and presented at the Gramercy Institute Financial Marketer’s Forum & Awards in New York City. The real value lay in how the campaign came together: through trust, alignment, and close collaboration between UBS, UNIT9, and TOML.
Weaving the Red Thread: A Global Collaboration That Ties It All Together
The Red Thread was built on a simple but powerful idea: connection. That philosophy became the foundation of the campaign. Just as the red thread links people across distance, the event series was designed to connect investors across global financial centers. Each event addressed the realities of its local market, yet every conversation remained tied to the same broader questions shaping the future of investing.
At its core, the campaign sought to bring together a global audience under one unifying concept, while still respecting the distinct cultural, economic, and strategic realities of local markets. The name itself reflected the central challenge, maintaining a coherent global narrative without losing regional relevance. Each activation, conversation, and experience was designed to feel part of a larger story, yet tailored enough to resonate authentically on the ground. For UBS, a financial institution built on partnership and trust, was a strategic expression of its identity. The Red Thread moved the brand from messaging to meaning. It created space to engage with critical issues such as sustainability, innovation, and collaboration in a way that felt substantive rather than performative. By connecting global insight with local perspective, UBS positioned itself not only as a financial powerhouse but as a long-term partner helping clients navigate complexity in a rapidly changing world.
To bring the vision to life, UBS partnered with TOML™ Collective and UNIT9, forming a collaboration that bridged strategic insight with creative execution. Strategic insight meant grounding every decision in a clear understanding of UBS’s positioning, client expectations, and the broader market landscape. It required identifying the themes that mattered most—sustainability, long-term value creation, innovation, and shaping a narrative that could resonate across regions while staying aligned with UBS’s core values of partnership and trust. That balance between global coherence and regional relevance became the central challenge of the Red Thread campaign. The structure had to allow conversations to evolve naturally in each market while keeping them connected to the same underlying themes shaping the future of investing.
Creative execution translated that strategy into tangible experiences. UNIT9’s agency expertise and TOML Collective’s full-scale production worked in tandem to ensure the concept was not only coherent but compelling. From November 2023 to April 2024, the campaign extended beyond visibility metrics. Its objective was to deepen client relationships, reinforce UBS’s thought leadership, and spark substantive dialogue around sustainable investing. Together, TOML Collective and UNIT9 designed the Red Thread Global Themes and Outlook series as a platform for these conversations, where content, design, and experience aligned to reflect the strategic intent behind the campaign.
UBS Asset Management set out to solidify its spot as the go-to global leader for investors. The mission? Arm investors with the tools and insights to tackle the complexities of modern finance without breaking into a cold sweat. They envisioned a thought leadership event series that wasn’t just informative but actually hit the mark for what their audience really cared about.
Understanding the Scope: Creating this event series meant addressing a unique set of challenges:
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Global Reach: The campaign had to connect with audiences in 14 key business hubs across three continents, each with distinct financial priorities.
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Localized Impact: Each city’s investment landscape demanded content that reflected local realities while staying aligned with UBS’s broader vision.
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Engagement at Scale: The events needed to balance thought leadership with personal relevance, ensuring attendees felt the content spoke directly to them
This couldn’t be a one-size-fits-all campaign. To meet the challenge, the teams focused on delivering tailored, meaningful experiences. Creating this event series came with some big but exciting challenges:
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Region-Specific Content: Presentations were built around the concerns and opportunities unique to each city, making sure every session felt relevant to its audience.
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Deeper Engagement: Thoughtful printed materials offered more than just takeaways—they encouraged attendees to explore UBS’s insights long after the events.
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Personalized Outreach: Social media campaigns and carefully designed email invitations connected with the right people, building excitement and anticipation.
UBS developed the Global Themes and Outlook series, focusing on long-term forces shaping financial markets, and these themes formed the backbone of the campaign, ensuring consistency across all events. At the same time, each city received a tailored program reflecting its local investment landscape. Presentations, discussions, and speakers were adapted to regional priorities, while a unified event structure and visual system ensured every location still felt part of the same global campaign.
By staying focused on local needs while maintaining a global perspective, the event series didn’t just share knowledge; it created a meaningful connection between UBS and its audience, cementing its role as a partner in navigating the future of finance. The campaign began with a shared narrative that could travel across markets.
Results: What happens When Creativity Goes Global?
While TOML™ Collective focused on crafting a strategy that balanced global themes with local needs, ensuring the campaign felt relevant no matter where it landed. UNIT9 used its creative and technical expertise to bring the strategy to life, turning what could have been a straightforward B2B campaign into an engaging and memorable experience.
Spanning 15 cities across 12 countries, The Red Thread brought together live events and innovative digital content to deliver a memorable experience. Esteemed speakers, including Nobel Laureate Michael Spence, former NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and global sports icon Roger Federer, offered their insights on pressing topics like sustainability, geopolitics, and financial innovation. The series not only showcased UBS’s thought leadership but also underscored its dedication to ESG principles.
The campaign achieved remarkable outcomes:
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Expanded Reach: A 52% increase in event attendance, engaging over 3,000 financial professionals globally.
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Widespread Recognition: Media coverage in prominent outlets like ANSA, El Mundo, and Financial Lounge amplified its visibility and impact.
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Stronger Brand Perception: Post-event surveys revealed a 40% boost in brand perception, positioning UBS as a trusted partner and a leader in the financial sector.
With compelling content, top-tier speakers, and a focus on big global issues, The Red Thread didn’t just elevate UBS’s reputation; it practically gave it wings. And along the way, it built stronger connections with key industry players who probably left wondering how UBS managed to make finance this engaging. At the same time, maintaining a consistent visual and experiential identity ensured that each event remained clearly part of the same campaign.
The Red Thread & The Power of Teamwork
Creatively, the campaign blended iconic global venues with tailored digital interfaces, ensuring consistency in messaging while adapting to local audiences. By integrating physical and digital elements, The Red Thread transformed traditional B2B marketing into an engaging and immersive experience. It allowed UBS to move from presenting research to facilitating conversations about the forces reshaping global finance. In doing so, the campaign demonstrated that thought leadership becomes more meaningful when it connects people, perspectives, and markets into a shared discussion about what lies ahead.
Partnering with UNIT9 on UBS Asset Management’s The Red Thread was built on close collaboration. Designers, animators, writers, strategists, and marketing teams worked together across disciplines to shape the campaign from strategy to execution. Seeing the work recognized as a finalist at this year’s The Drum Awards for B2B Thought Leadership was rewarding, but the real value came from the process itself. When different skills and perspectives come together around a shared goal, ideas sharpen, decisions move faster, and the work becomes stronger. That spirit of collaboration is what made this project stand out.
This innovative campaign not only reinforced UBS Asset Management’s leadership in the financial industry but also highlighted its commitment to sustainable investing, forward-thinking strategies, and deeply engaging client experiences. By bridging insights from 14 key business hubs across three continents, the campaign successfully connected local investment priorities with a global perspective, ensuring relevance and impact at every level.
