Ed at Wells noted that Wells has entered MySpace with a new avatar, Cassie Hill.  This is brilliant stuff, and pushing the bounds of any traditional banker.  This requires that traditional views be suspended, and let the new experience work its own destiny.  Customers, prospects, and users will take this somewhere, and that experiment is worth its weight in gold, when we think in terms of 2010 – 2015.

In Eds words:

The profile is for Cassie Hill, our Stagecoach Island ambassador avatar.  If you’re not familiar with Stagecoach Island, it’s a virtual world (originally started in Second Life, since moved to Active Worlds) where users can have fun, socialize and at the same time learn a bit about finance, such as saving money, earning interest ….

Wells continue to impress me with their iterative, gradual approach to test out these different media.  In my mind, this serves two very important points. 

1. Customer utility – it lets customers and prospects get used to and work with Wells within the new environments
2. Bank education – it lets the senior executive at Wells see what’s out there with low risk and high potential for learning that no other Bank (to my knowledge) is acquiring

Kudo’s to Wells, and Ed for their efforts in pushing the boundaries, and looking for openings, and opportunities in the new virtual worlds as yet another potential channel.