From City AM this morning, I picked up this little nugget under their “Marketing Campaign of the Year”:

 “Celebrities do it all the time,” said Norwich Union when it changed its name to Aviva. It argued that the old name – which dated from 1797 – was due a change in a world where it operates in 27 countries, and that one name should be used across the group.

Of course, the name change from Norwich Union to Aviva was nothing to do with the £1.26 million fine levied against them by the FSA for being incompetent when it came to protecting client data and protecting against fraud that was so damaging to their reputation that they had to distance themselves from their own name.  Of course not.  What a crazy suggestion that would be.  It’s because the name was old.  And they work in countries that don’t know what a Norwich is.