AEGON's expansion in the first decade of the 21st century often took the form of joint ventures.
Forming Joint Ventures
In April 2002, AEGON formed a joint venture with China National Offshore Oil Corporation. The resulting company, AEGON-CNOOC, was AEGON’s first venture into China.
Since then, AEGON’s activities in China have grown steadily. Today AEGON-CNOOC is present in provinces concentrated on China’s eastern coast, a prosperous region with 500 million potential customers. The company is now the 11th largest foreign-owned insurance company in mainland China.
In late 2009, AEGON-CNOOC ran a major rebranding campaign in China, including TV commercials, billboard ads, new product launches and an altered logo. The campaign was given a boost by the star power of one of the world’s most celebrated concert pianists: AEGON ambassador Lang Lang. AEGON-CNOOC’s new logo combines the blue of AEGON with the red of CNOOC, and clearly builds on AEGON’s tilted blue square. AEGON-CNOOC’s new slogan – roughly translated as “The perfect team, using our knowledge to secure your financial future” – is a perfect fit with AEGON’s worldwide strategic goals.
The campaign has yielded strong results. AEGON-CNOOC was recently named "The Best-Growing Brand in the Insurance Industry," based on a well-known public poll in China.
Expansion in the 1st Decade of the 21st Century
AEGON's businesses in Central & Eastern Europe were also growing during this period. From its Hungarian base, AEGON has expanded into Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Most recently AEGON has also begun operations in Turkey.
The first decade of the new century also saw AEGON form two joint ventures in Latin America: Argos AEGON in Mexico and Mongeral AEGON in Brazil. Ranked by market share for individual life insurance, Argos AEGON is now the 9th largest life insurance company in Mexico. AEGON’s Brazilian joint venture, Mongeral AEGON, is targeting a top-five position in the Brazilian life insurance market.
In 2008, AEGON expanded in Asia with the launch of its AEGON Religare Life Insurance Company joint venture in India. This was followed in Japan by the launch of the AEGON Sony Life joint venture in 2009.
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