• The Washington Post, Monday, September 19, 2011 10:15 AM

Three years after its $15.1 billion purchase of the ailing financial franchise Wachovia, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is rolling out a real stagecoach, which launches a D.C. rebranding effort for the acquired and rebranded bank.

There will be ads in transit stations, on buses, billboards and on TV. Capital One did a similar effort last year after buying Chevy Chase Bank. In each case, the acquirers had to assure their new customers that services would only get better.

Capital One used two celebrity athletes with local ties -- then-Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb and Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin -- to tout the change to Washingtonians. Wells Fargo is focusing on its iconic stagecoach, originally meant to "inspire confidence in our nation's growth," explained Lori Kolbert, the bank's mid-Atlantic sales and marketing director. "It signals progress."

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