Wells Fargo's Social Network Strategy

I still don't get Wells Fargo's social network strategy; the one article I previously read about it sure seemed to scream "Wow, this is so cool! So cool that who cares about the fact that I can't demonstrate that it's at all profitable!" But, at any rate, Wells Fargo is the hip kid on the block, I guess, and it's at least fun to see what they're doing, to see if it generates any ideas for us.

“We wanted to stay focused on our mis­sion to provide financial
education and we decided the best way to do that while protecting our brand is
to build our own island,” said Gina Fung, VP of experiential marketing at Wells
Fargo. “Young adults find themselves facing a lot of firsts, and we felt
Stagecoach Island could give them hands-on practice in financial
responsibil­ity in an entertaining and safe format.”

Now in its third year, Stagecoach Island remains very popular in part
because Wells Fargo keeps the in-world branding to a minimum. “We didn't want to
shout Wells Fargo, so the only place you'll see our logo is on the virtual
ATMs,” Fung explained. “But surprisingly, the users have gone out and created
their own branded Wells Fargo banks, so we've learned they're embracing the fact
that this is all sponsored by us.”

...Wells Fargo uses multiple channels to drive awareness of Stagecoach
Island, including email, in-store events and social networking sites such as
MySpace. Fung stresses the goal of Stagecoach Island is branding/consumer
education and not necessarily to capture names of potential customers or deliver
targeted messages. Erik Hauser, founder/creative director of San
Francisco-based Swivel Media [says] "...The people who come to these virtual
worlds are more than willing to provide information because they don't feel
they're being marketed to."

“You also have to clearly define what your objective is in order to
know what your ROI is going to be,” he says.

He also cautioned that companies should only explore the space if they
feel they can “bring some real value” to their target audience.