HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- First Entertainment Credit Union has gone Hollywood and is giving members a chance to audition their own virtual personal assistant on its newly revamped Web site (www.firstent.org).
With "The Audition," the credit union is shaking up the traditional, conservative image of credit unions and showing members that "money has never been so funny."
Besides going for a clean, sleek look with more white space and a few punches of color for various products and services, online video, geared toward the next generation of credit union members, is a key component of the new site.
Members can select from three aspiring online assistants: "The Surfer," "The Starlet" or "The Brit," whose world is literally designed to revolve around the member. To help in the decision process members can audition each character by clicking through vignettes and skits under specific topics and watch them perform. Once selected he or she will appear on a sound marker board with a "tell me about it" menu as members navigate the site. With an eye on providing infotainment, the personal assistant will then offer his or her take on a variety of topics from checking accounts to ATMs.
"I probably need to do a road show on this, but you don't have to be the credit union you were in the '50s," said First Entertainment CU Vice President of Marketing Roy MacKinnon. "We knew about the social networking sites and popularity of online videos but didn't appreciate how pervasive video is in the under-30 group until we learned that in March 2008 11.5 billion videos were viewed online. That drove it home for us that our new site had to have a video component."
MacKinnon gives credit to British Columbia-based Coast Capital Credit Union and its online guide Julie for inspiring First Entertainment's personal assistants. (See Credit Union Times, June, 19, 2006.) Launched in July 2006 as part of the credit union's strategy to provide an enhanced, user-friendly online experience to members, Julie uses humor to chat up current products and services to the credit union's Web site visitors.
"I will freely admit when I saw that a year-and-a-half ago I cried, 'This is what we should do,'" said MacKinnon. "So when we committed to doing something different with our Web site, we wanted to take the Julie concept one step further with these three characters that you see so often in the entertainment industry."
The credit union worked with Omaha, Neb., agency Ayres, Kahler Sacco, to bring the idea to life.
Each assistant has about 25 "bits" on the Web site, and MacKinnon said there was so much footage shot that plans are underway to include an out takes section later on.
To get people buzzing before the June 23rd launch, First Entertainment played up the viral component by creating www.goaheadlaugh.org, where members are introduced to the personal assistants and sent e-mail blasts with a teaser site link to some 24,000 members. It also posted online animated banners in industry trades such as Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. In addition, the assistants could be found on branch posters and actually in branches in various poses as six-foot standees. First Entertainment also mailed an audition postcard with all three assistants on a couch with a simple message of "See how funny money can be" to 30,000 members.
"The viral component is just one element in the overall idea to get people intrigued, saying what's going on here and wanting to learn more," said MacKinnon.
"Our current site has been up for a little over four years, and navigation has been in place for seven years, so we wanted to make a big change something completely different and unique that will get the 15 to 35 year old market wanting to be a member. The only area we haven't changed and personal assistants play no role in is the home banking area because we recognize people pretty much want to just do their transactions there."
Cognizant that the site should have a general appeal, personal assistants are only activated by members choosing to do so with a clicka of their mouse. The new site has the capability of being navigated without assistant commentary.
"Years ago our credit union made a big commitment to marketing, recognizing that growth doesn't happen without getting our name out there. This next generation of members is a big struggle for everyone. So we're hoping that this will get the viral word out and people saying 'you won't believe what this credit union has done," said MacKinnon. "If we want to effectively reach this next generation, as marketers we have to understand what they are looking at, reading, how they are gaming everything, because their interpersonal activities are very different from when we were 30 or even 15."
MacKinnon said his goal is to double the number of Web site hits in the first 90 days of the launch and only lose half of that by late fall.
--mdigiovanni@cutimes.com
