Say What You Mean: The Art of Authentic Marketing
Wells Fargo vs. Facebook
Dan Sonners
Au•then•tic•ity•
Noun
The quality of being authentic
Au•then•tic•
Adjective
Representing one’s true nature or beliefs
Authenticity, it’s relatively easy to define yet so difficult to implement when it comes to marketing.
How can you tell if someone is being authentic? As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said most people “know it when they see it”. Granted, Justice Potter was referring to pornography but the same can probably be said about authenticity. The key to Justice Potter’s statement is that he was talking about his personal interpretation, and that’s definitely true when it comes to authenticity. How authentic a message comes across is in the eye of the beholder.
Authenticity is not about what you’re saying, but by how it’s being perceived by the person on the other end of the communication.
Companies spend millions on public relations and market research in an effort to figure out what their customers want to hear, and therein lies the problem.
Think of the relationships in your life, whether it be with your friends, family, significant other, or customers. In what kind of “authentic” relationship are you always telling the other person what they want to hear? I’d suggest not many which are built on trust, and those which aren’t built on trust are usually temporary in nature.
Authenticity requires allowing yourself (or your brand) to be seen as vulnerable in order to develop a more meaningful (and trustworthy) relationship with the person at the other end of the message. This is never more true than in a time of crisis.
Facebook and Wells Fargo are two companies with a combined $800 billion in market cap. Despite operating in completely different sectors of the economy, both share the distinction of having recently faced a crisis in public confidence which posed an existential threat to their business model.
Both companies also attempted to turn the page with a 60 second ad aimed at rebooting their image and regaining the public’s trust.
Let’s compare the authenticity and effectiveness of each response.
Facebook has come a long way since Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room. The social network now has over 2 billion worldwide users, with countless pieces of data on each one. That incredible asset has transformed Facebook into one of the world’s most influential and powerful companies. Well, with great power comes great responsibility (or at least oversight).
How Facebook handles and secures its users’ data came to the public forefront with the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal.
While Facebook has had to navigate bad privacy headlines in the past, the Cambridge Analytica story shined a light on the countless third party apps and companies which obtain data from Facebook and how loosely Facebook policed the use of that data once it was pulled from their platform.
While dealing with privacy concerns, Facebook simultaneously was forced to contend with the fact that for many its platform had lost the feel-good connectivity that attracted users in the first place. Newsfeeds had become dominated by companies, fake news threatened to ruin Facebook’s status as a source of information, and political divisiveness had replaced pictures of grandkids and your Friday night out.
In January, Facebook announced changes to its newsfeed algorithm which would prioritize “meaningful interactions” with friends and family over group posts. Then in April, millions watched as Zuckerberg testified before Congress about Cambridge Analytica and various other issues facing the social network.
Just two weeks later, Facebook launched their “Here Together” TV ad which addressed the site’s problems head-on and promised changes to address them.
The ad opens with an image of Facebook’s original “Add as friend” click button with the voice over stating “We Came Here For The Friends”. The voice over then touches on some of Facebook’s most basic (and original) functions (connecting with friends of friends, birthdays, connecting with family, relationship statuses, comments of condolence and support).
Thirty seconds in, the feel good reminiscing ends with the voice over saying “But then something changed he then rapid fires through issues which have poisoned the Facebook experience mentioning spam, click bait, fake news, and data misuse going on to say “that’s going to change”. The ad concludes with the voice over promising that “From now on Facebook will do more to keep you safe and protect your privacy” with the idea that the social network will return to being about connecting with friends (very effectively looping back to the ad’s open).
Whats Authentic?
- The nostalgia, because it’s real and not forced. Facebook’s most important demo are the older millennials who have been with the social network since it was “The Facebook”. The ad does a good job reminding this key group that Facebook has provided them with a very good and valuable experience in the past. If you’re in your early to mid 30’s you felt something seeing those vintage Facebook graphics, as if reminding you of a simpler time. Facebook committing to rebuild that experience is a good play towards the people who likely have the most emotional connection to the social network.
- Facebook doesn’t hide from the issues at hand. How many “corporate apologies” have you seen where the company fails to mention what they are apologizing for? In this ad, Facebook leans right in and acknowledges that the experience many came to Facebook for has been tarnished by spam, click bait, fake news, and privacy concerns. One of the worst thing a company can do when trying to reboot their image is skate around the issue at hand. Here Facebook is effectively telling their users “we get it”. That’s a great way to disarm skeptics and get customers to open their mind about a second chance.
- The Ending. “When this place does what’s it built for…then we all get a little closer.” This may seem a little too altruistic for some to consider it authentic. However, I think it works because it ties back to Mark Zuckerberg’s original mission statement for Facebook to bring the world closer. If this were for a company which had never expressed an interest in the outside world, it probably wouldn’t work. In this case, it’s Zuckerberg saying to his original users that we helped bring the world closer, lost our focus, but now we’re back. A positive product experience will buy you a lot of equity with a public that’s naturally forgiving, but it’s also high risk because many consumers wont give you a third shot at recommitting to your mission.
Whats Not Authentic?
- “But then something changed” is a very vague way of Facebook accepting responsibility, and may even come across as blaming external factors for the diminished user experience. It’s true Facebook didn’t publish spam or fake news, but their algorithms are what created a cottage industry for those things. A more authentic way of accepting responsibility would’ve been for the ad to say “…but then we forgot what made Facebook good” sticking with the redemption / recommitment theme at the end.
Is It Authentic?
Yes. Facebook effectively plays the nostalgia card to remind it’s users about the tangible value the social network brought to their lives, directly acknowledged the problems, and promised to recommit the platform to Facebook’s founding values.
Wells Fargo
Known for its stagecoach logo, Wells Fargo has been around since 1852. The vintage logo harkens back to the bank’s humble beginnings transporting gold across America during the Gold Rush.
With 70 million customers in 34 countries, Wells Fargo has grown into one of the largest companies in the world and is the third largest bank in the US.
Along with America’s other large banks, Wells Fargo was forced to pay $1.2 billion in fines for hiding its toxic loans leading up the 2008 Financial Crisis. Despite this, the San Francisco based institution was able to maintain it’s public reputation and by 2015 was listed by Fortune as the 7th most respected company in the world. Unfortunately, massive scandals were bubbling beneath the surface which would permanently threaten that public respect.
Over a brutal 20-month period, the bank was accused of creating over 3 million fake accounts, wrongly charged 110,000 customers mortgage fees, and fraudulently forced over 500,000 auto-loan borrowers to buy insurance they didn’t need, resulting in 20,000 borrowers defaulting on their loans.
All this and other bad headlines resulted in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) slapping Wells Fargo with the largest fine in the agency’s history. Additionally, in an unprecedented move, the Federal Reserve ruled that the bank would not be permitted to grow it’s assets until regulators are convinced Well Fargo has cleaned up it’s act. The road to regain the public’s trust is going to be a long one, and Wells Fargo decided to start it with a 60-second apology ad.
“Earning Back Your Trust” opens with (what else?) a slow motion video of a galloping horse and a stagecoach, with a voice over saying “We Know The Value of Trust”, followed by an audio and visual reminder that Wells Fargo was the Company prospectors trusted to ship their gold back east. The black and white images transition to pictures from modern day as the voice over says that “Over the years we built on that trust…we always found a way”. Then, the symbolic and literal lights go out and and a digital headline appears on a lap top which reads “What’s Happening At Wells Fargo?” and the voice over concludes “…until we lost it”as the computer screen goes back.
But as quick as the lights go dark, they’re back on again and we’re reminded that “This is where the story starts again” with a montage of incredibly diverse consumers and the voice over promising that a “complete commitment to you”, “fixing what went wrong, making them right” and “ending product sales goals”.
The spot wraps with images of customers jumping for joy (presumably over closing a mortgage), and a voiceover promising to “focus on your satisfaction”. Mixed in at the end is the image of a small child giving a high five to a banker while walking in the door (something I know I did in my childhood). Finally, we’re told that “It’s a new day at Wells Fargo” and we’re reminded via voice and graphics that Wells Fargo was “Established 1852” and “Re-Established 2018”
Whats Authentic?
- The fact the ad exists at all. Wells Fargo clearly realized they couldn’t go back to business as usual without addressing the elephant in the room. That’s commendable because public corporate apologies still aren’t the norm. In 2015, Lumber Liquidators was exposed for selling laminante with unhealthy levels of formaldehyde. They responded by agreeing to stop selling laminate made in China, the issue was never spoken about again publicly. In fact, here’s what Lumber Liquidators ads look like today, not exactly a measured tone.
Whats Not Authentic?
- The nostalgia play. Nostalgia works when it triggers the consumer’s memories about how valuable the produce used to be. I’m not sure the Gold Rush resonates in 2018. A better play would have been to remind viewers about all of the great American projects Wells Fargo has helped finance over the years as Citi did with this ad which celebrated its 200’th anniversary.
- The “Non-Apology, Apology.” Be honest, if you didn’t read the newspaper you’d have no idea what the commercial means when the voice actor says “…until we lost it.” Besides that, the biggest reference to the many scandals which Wells Fargo has endured over the last 2 years is a fake digital headline which disappears after 3 seconds on screen. It kind of reminded me of when Tiger Woods held a press conference and apologized for his “selfish behavior” while only vaguely references the chronic cheating on his wife. An apology without specifics and contrition isn’t really an apology. Like Tiger’s apology, my big takeaway from the Wells Fargo ad was “We got caught”.
- The changes. This ad goes to great lengths not to directly address the charges against the bank or the changes that will be made in light of them. The best we get is a promise to eliminate branch incentives which is the ultimate deflection. In essence the ad is saying that the bank’s problems were the result of branch managers seeking bonuses and not the toxic top down culture which made managers think that behavior was acceptable. Eliminating sales incentives might help some of those issues, but incentives don’t create a toxic culture, that comes from within.
- The ending. There is no kid in the the history of childhood who has ever been fired up to walk into a bank, that imagery is a bit much. Likewise, Wells Fargo choosing to “re-establish” itself sends the wrong message. The bank doesn’t get to decide when to reboot it’s image, that ultimately comes from the public moving past the scandal which brings up another important point. Money talks and b.s. walks as they say (I don’t know who said it, but it’s a saying). If you admit what you did, apologize, and fix it, chances are the public will forgive you. America loves giving second chances and if you don’t believe me consider this: Tonya Harding was finalist this year on Dancing With The Stars.
Is it Authentic?
No. While good intentioned, Wells Falls tries to say a lot (given all the material) while saying very little in the process.
Wells Fargo gets credit for attempting to address the issues which led to a collapse in public trust, but they did it in a very generalized way and ducked responsibility as an institution. Likewise, their ad spends more time leveraging Wells Fargo’s rich history than it does attempting to convey remorse for their multiple scandals. A more syndical view is that this ad was intended for people who don’t know what happened at Wells Fargo, and not the millions of people who were outraged over the bank’s deceptive practices.
Which Ad Is More Authentic ?
Facebook’s, hands down. Again, it really comes down to how the viewer perceives the message. Both ads attempt to be authentic, but Facebook’s connects on a deeper level with its practical nostalgia, naming specific problems, and identifying specific solutions with no attempt to shy away from responsibility.
To put it another way, Facebook’s “Here Together” looks like CEO Mark Zuckerberg walked into a room and said ‘here is what we need to say, now figure out a way to say it’, It feels like it was produced by someone with a deep personal connection to the brand. On the other hand, Wells Fargo’s “Earning Back Your Trust” feels like the product of millions of dollars in focus groups and months of crisis management. It feels contrived, forced, and well…generic. It’s as if someone opened up a can of Ivy League public relations, and it feels like something we’ve seen before in another place like when a famous golfer apologized for his serial philandering without telling us exactly what he did.
“Here Together” may very well be a product of public relations, crisis management, and focus groups, and no one knows for sure what’s in the hearts of Facebook management. Regardless, the ad broadcasts a sense of honesty, empathy, accountability and vulnerability and that’s what makes it authentic and why it works.
An ad campaign built on authenticity can be a great way to apologize and commit to change in a scaleable way. However, a company should never underestimate the ability of the consumer to identify fake authenticity or half measures which can be a major set back towards regaining the public’s trust. In other word’s, consumers know authenticity when they see it and they’ll usually reward you for it.
The author Dan Sonners is Director of Non-Profit Marketing at Conrad Direct. The opinions expressed in this piece are personal.
If you like the analysis expressed in this piece, please considering following The Marketing Abstract on Medium to get all of Dan’s unique takes on the world of marketing.
Dan can be reached at dsonners@gmail.com with any comments, feedback, questions, or to continue the discussion.
