When Carl Sneed downed a sufficient number of live stink beetles on "Fear Factor" to claim the $50,000 prize, Wachovia's Private Client Services stepped in to help the college student decide how to invest his nest egg. At the winner's request, service leader Jeff Taylor even taped an hour-long telephone conversation with Carl's mother, Priscilla, about her son's financial options. The tale, woven into a 60-second television spot for Wachovia Bank, ends with the line, "At Wachovia, we're absolutely obsessed with satisfying our customers."
Well, "satisfying" might not exactly be the right word: It's hard not to wince when those squirming bugs hit Carl's tongue. The spot is one of 12 launched by the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank to flaunt its customer-service prowess: The bank topped the University of Michigan Customer Satisfaction Survey for the fifth year in a row and wanted to crow about it, says Jim Garrity, chief marketing officer for Wachovia. "We used to focus on 'uncommon wisdom' after the First Union-Wachovia merger, but now that we've established our brand for five years, we're focusing on 'shared success.'" Many of the ads end with the tagline, "Uncommon Wisdom" or "Uncommon Wisdom for Shared Success." The bank also wanted to tout its free-checking product.
The series, which began airing on CBS during the fourth annual Wachovia Championship in May in Charlotte, also includes 15-second and 30-second segments. Three main segments include a yarn about Joe Carta, who explains how his banker helped dig his son's passport out of the family's safe-deposit box during the Christmas holiday; another about a truck-company owner who took his banker's advice about using prepaid cards for his drivers during Hurricane Katrina; and another about Dr. Ramona Houston, a professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta who credited a bank financial seminar with prompting her to buy her first home.
The spots are clear and simple, with the stories told in compelling split-screen vignettes that have the added advantage of being true. Another element some of the ads hammer home is that the bank can help customers "make possibilities a reality," Garrity says. In fact, some of the best spots are about retirement. "Retire at 60, Think Ocean View," says one. "Retire at 62, Think Ocean Front." One lovely collection of stanzas, spoken by a first-time homeowner, a small-business owner, a big-thinking mogul and an aspiring retiree, is particularly striking: "'Before it became our home, it was our hope.' 'Before it became my pride, it was my passion.' 'Before it became my acquisition, it was my ambition.' 'Before it became our everyday, it was our someday.'" Then the clincher: A male's voice says: "Before anything becomes a reality, it begins as someone's possibility. At Wachovia, we are absolutely obsessed with turning possibilities into realities." Garrity, who declined to say how much the campaign cost, says ads will rotate over several years in radio, online, magazine and newspaper venues. "Our goal here is to fully integrate all our marketing [messages]," he says. "We needed a creative idea that worked across every platform."
The bank started working on the concept in fall 2005 and spent only 10 weeks perfecting it. Mullen of Wenham, MA, conceived the idea, shepherded by Winston-Salem-based executive creative director John Brockenbrough and evp Brad Zabel. "We were looking for a unifying idea across all lines of business that would be consumer-focused," recalls Brockenbrough, who says the team was aiming at bringing "a contemporary and energetic tone" to the campaign. "It's a well-trod area, but we knew that testimonials are a tried and true approach."
Indeed, the creative team shuffled through at least 100 personal stories before settling on a handful. Directed by South African Kevin Fitzgerald, the TV ads are so sharply edited that "they fit like pieces of a puzzle" that can be refitted with others to tell different stories, Brockenbrough says.
George Van Fleet, president at Chicago-based LE Direct, an advertising agency, called the Wachovia campaign "well done," particularly the Katrina spot. "It did something that is very difficult to do in advertising: It appealed to a very wide audience," he says. "And it's hard to break through the clutter. It was well thought-out, laid down a feel-good attitude toward the bank and positioned them as a caring institution." He was less impressed, however, with the clarity of the tagline: "Uncommon Wisdom for Shared Success."
