Wells Fargo Flops with Backstage Endeavor

stagecoach_island.jpg

Some campaigns are launched with high hopes only to be buried by more important things or simply bad planning. This is what we think happened with Wells Fargo's strange 2006 Backstage campaign, boasting music by no-name artists, a weird Stagecoach Island game, and a national tour (less Woodstock than a futile set of volleyball games).

We would never have found out about the campaign that didn't fly if we hadn't been to the bank yesterday, where we saw a card sticking out of a machine and went in to return it. The coiffed rep gushed, "good behaviour needs rewarding" and, after quizzing us on our FICO savvy, gave us a Backstage shirt. We harbor the suspicion there are about 4,000 said shirts in the backstage of the branch, but didn't say anything.

Of course, had we searched Adrants, we would have realized the game's been around in one form or another for over a year. Aren't we good?

by Angela Natividad    Feb- 2-07   Click to Comment   
Topic: Bad, Campaigns, Guerilla, Online   

Enjoy what you've read? Subscribe to Adrants Daily and receive the daily contents of this site each day along with free whitepapers.



Comments



Comments

Lumping Stagecoach Island into your comments is at least somewhat unfair. SI proved to be a very successful campaign, and by your own words, you said that you didn't know about this until you had already written some comments about the efforts of Wells over the last two years.

Sure, the stuff going on now isn't all that great, but it would be remiss of you to not make a clear distinction between what worked well (SI and related stuff), and what's going on now, don't you think?

Posted by: Kevin Glennon on February 3, 2007 2:03 AM

Kevin, the Wells Fargo SI campaign was a "very successful campaign?" Have you been drinking to much moonshine today? That wasn't a "very" successful campaign, it was an OK it worked for a while campaign.

Posted by: Roy on February 3, 2007 2:00 PM

Has any one even been in the "Stage Coach" Game. NO. It is really non existant. It seems to have failed for the marketing company that created it.

Yes the technology and idea seems great but lets get real, Will you really find your CUSTOMERS in a childs game. Especially one that caters to people that make 6 buks an hour. It seems they wanted to target a "generation" and instead ended up with a small cult like group of techies.

SwivelMedia just over thought this one and Yes the backstage promotion and "SI" are one in the same. They used one to advertise the other.

Better luck next time...

Posted by: Lisa Market on February 3, 2007 6:54 PM

Has any one even been in the "Stage Coach" Game. NO. It is really non existant. It seems to have failed for the marketing company that created it.

Yes the technology and idea seems great but lets get real, Will you really find your CUSTOMERS in a childs game. Especially one that caters to people that make 6 buks an hour. It seems they wanted to target a "generation" and instead ended up with a small cult like group of techies.

SwivelMedia just over thought this one and Yes the backstage promotion and "SI" are one in the same. They used one to advertise the other.

Better luck next time...

Posted by: Lisa Market on February 3, 2007 6:55 PM

Has any one even been in the "Stage Coach" Game. NO. It is really non existant. It seems to have failed for the marketing company that created it.

Yes the technology and idea seems great but lets get real, Will you really find your CUSTOMERS in a childs game. Especially one that caters to people that make 6 buks an hour. It seems they wanted to target a "generation" and instead ended up with a small cult like group of techies.

SwivelMedia just over thought this one and Yes the backstage promotion and "SI" are one in the same. They used one to advertise the other.

Better luck next time...

Posted by: Lisa Market on February 3, 2007 6:55 PM

Has any one even been in the "Stage Coach" Game. NO. It is really non existant. It seems to have failed for the marketing company that created it.

Yes the technology and idea seems great but lets get real, Will you really find your CUSTOMERS in a childs game. Especially one that caters to people that make 6 buks an hour. It seems they wanted to target a "generation" and instead ended up with a small cult like group of techies.

SwivelMedia just over thought this one and Yes the backstage promotion and "SI" are one in the same. They used one to advertise the other.

Better luck next time...

Posted by: lisa Market on February 3, 2007 6:57 PM

Thanks for being a good Samaritan and returning the ATM card to the branch. While I appreciate your healthy skepticism of the Backstage program, we considered it a big success. We intentionally focused on emerging artists and bands as part of the program to appeal to people's desire to find hidden talent on their own...think myspace music. Both the Tour and Stagecoach Island were well received by consumers. Frankly, I was surprised to learn that a branch still had t-shirts left, as many locations ran out early.

Posted by: Tim Collins-Wells Fargo on February 5, 2007 11:44 AM