DDB Needham Links Past, Present In New Ads for Wells Fargo Bank

DDB Needham emphasizes the value of a customer’s time while relying on the client’s long-standing stagecoach icon in a new campaign for Wells Fargo Bank.
The Los Angeles shop has created a new tagline for the financial institution, “Fast then. Fast now,” to carry through the entire campaign, which encompasses print, radio, outdoor and TV ads.
The first TV spot, “Time isn’t money,” broke in 12 markets during the Winter Olympics in 30- and 60-second executions. The spot mixes images of the Western outdoors with scenes of family and friends in a small-town setting. A voiceover explains the importance of time: “You can’t buy it or earn it. No matter how wisely you invest it, the amount you have will never increase.”
In the 60-second spot, a voiceover states, “At Wells Fargo, the person who said time is money didn’t place a high enough value on time. That’s why we believe being fast isn’t just a matter of speed. It’s a matter of respect.”
Both spots end with shots of Wells Fargo’s classic icon, a stagecoach rolling along the plains, and the tagline, “Fast then. Fast now. Wells Fargo Bank.”
“Wells Fargo has meaning in [their] icon,” said Rick Carpenter, DDB L.A.’s managing director and chief creative officer. “Dependability, trust and stability. At the time, the stagecoach was the latest technology in serving [banking] customers. We’re linking the past and the present … by addressing customer needs [today], showing a respect for their time and their need of service.”
DDB Needham is currently producing another 30- and 60-second spot that continues the time theme, but “puts a different spin on who it’s speaking to,” Carpenter said.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, with branches in 10 Western states, spent approximately
$6 million on advertising through the first 10 months of 1997, down from an estimated $27 million for the previous year as a whole, according to Competitive Media Reporting.