Bruce Willis is doing what Bruce Willis does best, delivering the action that made his Die Hard films big hits at the box office. Walter Willis looks decidedly worried in the seat alongside him as the pair take a breakneck tour of New York. The message is spelt out loud and clear: would Walter have been a success in movies if he hadn't changed his name to Bruce?

Joining Willis are Elle Macpherson, Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper, posing the question “What's in a name?” in what is arguably the slickest rebranding exercise in corporate history. But, with an estimated £80 million final bill, Aviva's announcement that it is to drop the Norwich Union brand may also go down as the most expensive.

The insurer's worldwide campaign was conceived by Andrew Moss, its chief executive. With many of the ads still to air, the final cost will be well in excess of the £37 million the company spent on “brand migration” in the year to last December. That figure includes other costs, such as changing letterheads and writing to customers.

In Britain, the television ads have been accompanied by a blizzard of publicity on billboards nationwide. The international campaign gets into gear later this year, targeting the American, Asian and continental European markets. Macpherson and Starr - less well-known as Eleanor Gow and Richard Starkey - will lead the way, along with actors narrating stories about real customers.

Aviva, Britain's largest insurer, refused to put a figure on the cost of the whole process, but said that brand awareness of its name change increased from 35 per cent of its customers to 80 per cent within three weeks of the adverts being screened.

Paul Rowlinson, investment director of audiovisual media at Mindshare, a media buyer within the WPP Group, said that Aviva probably would have spent £30 million on advertising and marketing by the end of May. This could easily rise to more than £80 million by the end of the year. “It is massive. Aviva is one of the biggest buyers in the last few years. If you put enough money into the market and make enough noise, it will move the needle.”

Even so, the recession has allowed Aviva to keep costs down, since television time is now considerably cheaper. A spokeswoman said that filming for both the British and international campaigns took place at the same time last summer, while using previously empty billboard space had also reduced costs.

If the bill for the campaign has raised eyebrows, analysts and investors showed few concerns yesterday as Aviva bolstered its capital reserves by £500 million and announced an increase in first-quarter sales that was better than expected.

Mr Moss quashed speculation that Aviva would need a rights issue and said there was growing evidence that international markets were beginning to recover. UK consumers were buying life and pensions products in spite of the recession, he said. “Although we are in the midst of an economic crisis, people are still saving.”

Shares in Aviva rose 13p, 5 per cent, to 287p yesterday, after it lifted its capital cushion to £2.5 billion at the end of March, making it among the best-capitalised of Britain's insurers. Probably not the kind of thing that Bruce Willis would take much notice of, but an older, weary Walter might.

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