Zig Rebrand: Moving in the Right Direction

ComfortDelGro is not giving up on its ride-hailing ambitions, having rebranded its latest app earlier this year - its third in less than four years.

For much of the time when ride-hailing apps were dominating the private transport industry in the 2010s, OG taxi operator CDG felt like a laggard. Slow to adopt technology and failing to see the threats posed by the new kids of the block, its profits took a beating.

In 2022, CDG finally decided to play catch up by rebranding its taxi booking app, once described by some as unusable and unstable, to CDG Zig - an ambitious “super app” combining taxi bookings with lifestyle features (Zig was first launched as a lifestyle focused app with journey planning features in 2021, before being folded into CDG’s taxi booking app). Adopting a start-up look with bold colours and a casual name, it positioned itself as a direct competitor to the likes of Grab and Gojek.

Roadblock

But Zig’s initial logo hit a significant roadblock early on. The stylized, sharp-edged “Z”, was also the letter that had become a pro-war symbol associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. CDG quickly pulled the logo from its marketing materials and car decals.

What followed was a “quick fix” logo that served as a placeholder for nearly three years. While it successfully distanced the brand from the controversy, the interim design was bland and uninspired. It was a safe, functional mark that lacked the personality and “meandering movement” of the original brand concept. For a brand named “Zig,” the visual identity felt disconnected and ironically static.

New Slant

In February 2026, Zig unveiled its refreshed brand, which “unified CDG’s taxi, private-hire rental, payment, and ride-hailing platform services into a single, tech-enabled identity to drive the next phase of the Group’s point-to-point mobility strategy in Singapore”.

The new brand identity features an italicised wordmark conveying a sense of forward momentum. Zig now uses a lighter shade of blue, and added yellow to its brand colours as seen on the new logo’s “i”.

A copy-led advertising campaign “Time to Zig” accompanied the rebrand, which used relatability to connect with commuters. The copy combined normal and italicised text for emphasis, while the visuals used trapeziums and angled shapes as frames for images, set against a blue background with dashes of yellow for a visual punch.

While the copy was not as sharp as its first campaign where they roasted Singaporeans for being boring or the more recent Grab’s GrabShare campaign, it was still refreshing to see a well-funded ride-hailing campaign that was not by Grab.

Zig also has a chinese name, 劲 (jìn), which means strength. Sadly, no ads or online content have referenced this name so far, even during the Lunar New Year period.

Time will tell if this 2026 refresh will dent Grab’s pole position. But with a stronger identity and deep “towkay” pockets from decades of operation, Zig is making it clear that it is still in the race.

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