MIAMI, FL: Wells Fargo, the financial services provider, has benefited from employing a flexible model as it seeks to develop total-market communications.
Michael Lacorazza, its EVP/Brand and Advertising and Head of Integrated Marketing, discussed this subject at the Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) 2015 Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference.
And he reported that while the organisation had "consolidated" its agency roster on the media-side, it casts the net much wider to develop ideas that can engage diverse groups of consumers.
"When it comes to crafting the big ideas and content, we found that we were getting better work with a specialist approach when it comes to the multicultural piece," said Lacorazza. (For more, including further details of the brand's evolving strategy, read Warc's exclusive report: How Wells Fargo pivoted to a "total-market" approach.)
BBDO, Wells Fargo's lead agency, retains a central role in this process – and has successfully built up its internal capabilities for such a task.
"They're bringing on much more multicultural-capable talent at the centre of their work, because it can't just be delegated," Lacorazza said.
"It has to be permeated into our organisation and permeated into the creative agency of record as well."
Although using a single creative partner is clearly "tempting" from a streamlining standpoint, Lacorazza's team regularly reaches out to specialist shops when it may enhance particular plans and projects.
"We worry that if we try to roll [those assignments] up into one place for efficiency, we'll lose something in the process and miss some detail that's important to a segment," he said.
Such a strategy also appeals, he continued, because "the segments that we cover are quite divergent in nature and they're not easy to specialize in across the breadth of our work."
An example of how this approach works in practice involves bringing together Well Fargo's marketing department, members of market-segment teams and a group of agencies to brainstorm ideas for an assignment.
"We've had campaigns that have been led by other agencies and, in many cases, the 'big idea' originated from one of those agencies. So great ideas can come from anywhere," Lacorazza said.
Michael Lacorazza, its EVP/Brand and Advertising and Head of Integrated Marketing, discussed this subject at the Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) 2015 Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference.
And he reported that while the organisation had "consolidated" its agency roster on the media-side, it casts the net much wider to develop ideas that can engage diverse groups of consumers.
"When it comes to crafting the big ideas and content, we found that we were getting better work with a specialist approach when it comes to the multicultural piece," said Lacorazza. (For more, including further details of the brand's evolving strategy, read Warc's exclusive report: How Wells Fargo pivoted to a "total-market" approach.)
BBDO, Wells Fargo's lead agency, retains a central role in this process – and has successfully built up its internal capabilities for such a task.
"They're bringing on much more multicultural-capable talent at the centre of their work, because it can't just be delegated," Lacorazza said.
"It has to be permeated into our organisation and permeated into the creative agency of record as well."
Although using a single creative partner is clearly "tempting" from a streamlining standpoint, Lacorazza's team regularly reaches out to specialist shops when it may enhance particular plans and projects.
"We worry that if we try to roll [those assignments] up into one place for efficiency, we'll lose something in the process and miss some detail that's important to a segment," he said.
Such a strategy also appeals, he continued, because "the segments that we cover are quite divergent in nature and they're not easy to specialize in across the breadth of our work."
An example of how this approach works in practice involves bringing together Well Fargo's marketing department, members of market-segment teams and a group of agencies to brainstorm ideas for an assignment.
"We've had campaigns that have been led by other agencies and, in many cases, the 'big idea' originated from one of those agencies. So great ideas can come from anywhere," Lacorazza said.
Data sourced from Warc
