Wells Fargo takes another stab at salvaging its image through ads

For the second time in the past year, Wells Fargo has launched an advertising campaign aimed at improving its tarnished image.

The embattled company on Monday announced the launch of a new marketing campaign, called “Re-established,” designed to improve its trustworthiness in the eyes of customers. The campaign features a one-minute commercial as well as advertisements in print, digital and broadcast media.

The commercial, in particular, highlights Wells’ historical roots, including its founding in 1852 and its role in financing the California gold rush. As the company expanded over the years, it established trust with customers — “until we lost it,” a narrator says in the background, alongside a picture of a news story with the headline “What’s Happening at Wells Fargo?”

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

The commercial focuses on how Wells is working to move past the scandals of the past 20 months, including by eliminating product sales goals for branch employees. The company ditched retail sales incentives in January 2017.

“While we have made solid progress, we recognize there is still work to be done,” CEO Tim Sloan said in a press release. “This campaign marks a turning point by expressing how we are fundamentally a different company today, and that it feels like a new day at Wells Fargo.”

The marketing campaign comes just a year the launch of a similar campaign, which Wells called “Building better every day.” Both efforts have been aimed at restoring Wells’ once-marquee brand, following a series of problems in its retail bank.

Wells revealed in the fall of 2016 that branch employees had opened roughly 2 million fake accounts to meet sales goals; that figure was later increased to 3.5 million. Additionally, the company has admitted to overcharging customers for auto insurance, and also improperly charging borrowers for extending mortgage rate locks.

Still, convincing customers that Wells is moving past its problems could be a tough sell.

Wells last month agreed to pay $1 billion to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to settle investigations into its mortgage and auto-lending practices. Additionally, the Federal Reserve in February ordered the company to cap its assets, currently at $1.9 trillion, until it improve its risk management procedures.

More recently, on Friday, Wells agreed to pay $480 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that it failed to disclose material facts to shareholders about its strategy for cross-selling customers.

In the release, Chief Marketing Officer Jamie Moldafsky said that the new marketing campaign will emphasize how Wells is serving customers “in new and improved ways.”

“It is about holding ourselves to a higher standard and our unwavering commitment to build a better bank,” Moldafsky said.