Mellon logo won't fly coop yet

The green "Mellon" sign that glows atop One Mellon Center, Downtown, will not be pulled down anytime soon by The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., which rolled out a new logo Monday.

The "circle M" logo that stood for the former Mellon Financial Corp. "might be removed in time," however, said spokesman Ron Gruendl.

The Bank of New York Mellon debuted its logo, as well as a branding and advertising campaign, yesterday -- about three months after Mellon merged into The Bank of New York.

The arrow-tip logo connotes pointing to the future. The gold, silver and bronze colors represent excellence in investment management and servicing, said BNY Mellon, as the corporation is known. The cost of the campaign was not disclosed.

Marketing managers involved in the process looked at "15 or 16 different directions" for the logo, said Peter Hayes, chief marketing officer for BNY Mellon. While hoping to acknowledge "the rich histories" of Mellon (founded 1869) and Bank of New York (founded 1784), the team was drawn to the two wings forming the arrow-tip.

"We liked the idea of having two different things coming together to form something new," said Hayes.

The "Mellon" name will be removed from the nine Mellon Private Wealth Management offices in this region and at 75 other offices worldwide. In their place will be the new arrow-tip logo and the BNY Mellon Wealth Management name in three to four months, Hayes said.

The logo was created by Lippincott, a leading branding and marketing firm in New York with many huge clients. Lippincott produced the logo and branding for Delta Air Lines when it emerged from bankruptcy in April.

The campaign is being supported by ads in major financial newspapers that carry the tagline "Who's helping you?"

Television ads are slated to debut in mid-October. The ads were created by Concept Farm, a New York agency.