The Rundown

• Banking may be stodgy, boring, and dull, but marketingprofessionals are making mundane stuff a bit moreentertaining.
• Credit unions are leveraging humor and pop culture to helpthem stand out against the big banks. that are flooding manymarketplaces with wall-to-wall ads.
• Marketing expert said humor and pop culture are effectiveways to grab attention.

Credit Union Man?

Yes, Credit Union Man who was born out of the frustration at bigbanking and was sent to earth to teach all of us a better way todeal with our money. His super powers are used to protect theeveryday person from predatory lending practices, high fees andslow loan approvals.

Credit Union Man was created by Fred Brown, director ofmarketing and member development at the $74 million NortheastFamily Federal Credit Union in Manchester, Conn. Brown and othermarketing professionals in the credit union industry, say usinghumor and pop culture in their marketing campaigns helps them standout over the deluge of big bank ads in print, on television, radio,the Internet and social media across many markets.

Let's face it, Brown said, banking is stodgy, boring and dull.Using humor or pop culture can break the same old mundane image andbring attention to the credit union difference over conventionalbanking. After all, a grown man wearing a red mask, a blue cape anda red and blue costume with the words Credit Union Man emblazonedon it is bound to grab attention and a few laughs.

About four years ago, people started calling Brown “credit unionman” because he became active on a listserv answering people'squestions about the credit union industry. He liked the moniker,used it on his email signature and from there created the superherocharacter and his own website with the full support and sponsorshipof Northeast Family FCU.

Joanne S. Todd, Northeast Family FCU CEO/president, said CreditUnion Man has helped increase the public awareness about the creditunion and the industry.

“I think it brings something rather unique to our credit union.We use Credit Union Man for special events and kids,” said Todd. “Ithink it sets us apart from other financial institutions becauseCredit Union Man is kind of fun, and you don't see someone like asuperhero promoting financial institutions.”

Todd doesn't shy from fun marketing promotions. She participatedin a fund-raising event in August that allowed people to donate $5for a piece of duct tape and use it to strap Todd to a wall in thecredit union's main office. The donations went to support AmericanFriends of Kenya, an organization that builds libraries and medicalclinics in that country.

Brown primarily uses Credit Union Man to promote all creditunions because he believes many people are unaware of credit unionsand their benefits over conventional commercial banks. He's madeappearances at various credit union conferences, schools, creditunion grand openings, parades, and other events.

The $395 million America's Credit Union in Fort Lewis, Wash.,successfully used humor in June 2011, to promote a new branch in aWalmart store in Lakewood, just south of Tacoma.

The marketing goals were to retain members by creating awarenessof the new in-store location, have at least 170 member householdsassigned to the new branch and develop a creative marketingcampaign that would reflect America's CU's brand–friendly,optimistic, approachable, progressive, confident and even a littlefun while promoting the convenience of the new branch.

Working with its ad agency, Boom Creative of Spokane, Wash., thecredit union developed a direct mail postcard that featured a photoof the interior of a shopping cart with a placard ad that read:“Conveniently located between the diapers and pork rinds. Now openat Lakewood Wal-Mart. ACU.”

“The creative for this campaign used humor to convey theconvenience of our new in-store branch,” explained Heidi West, vicepresident of marketing at ACU. “The use of the shopping cartreinforced the idea that it was a branch inside Walmart.” Thecredit union received a lot of positive feedback from members andpeople in the community, she said.

“Using humor in the campaign really gives our credit union theability to compete with the big banks because you don't need a bigbudget to get a laugh,” said West. “It's also a good way to makeour ads more effective because humor not only makes an ad moreentertaining but also more memorable to consumers.” Just like manymarkets, ACU's competes against a diverse combination of big banks,super regional players, small financial institutions and othercredit unions.

ACU targeted 4,144 members within a five-mile radius of the newbranch with the direct mail postcards. Inserts also were sent toapproximately 8,000 paper statement households.

The campaign attracted 251 member households to the new branch,which far exceeded the marketing goal of 170 member households.What's more, the campaign generated gross revenue of $35,532 fromnew members, according to ACU. Based on the marketing campaign'scost of $3,289, the return on investment was 1,080%.

Moreover, ACU's marketing campaign also received some deservedrecognition as the first place winner for direct marketing in the2012 CUES Golden Mirror Awards program.

James Robert Lay, founder of PTP New Media, an integratedmarketing communications agency in Pasadena, Texas, said he isseeing some credit unions shifting beyond the traditional financialspeak in their marketing efforts and venturing into the humorouspop culture messaging that may not seem directly connected withcredit union products or services.

“The messaging has got to be more than just 'catch a fallingrate' or 'spring into savings,'” said Lay. “We look at what we cando to emotionally connect with people, and a lot of times thatemotion is driven by what is going on in current events.” What'smore, market research has shown people are driven to buy productsand services through emotional triggers.

For example, PTP New Media developed a successful campaigncalled “How To Survive A Zombie Invasion.”

“It has nothing to do with credit unions, but it has everythingto do with credit unions,” explained Lay. “If you want to survive azombie invasion you need reliable transportation. And if you wantreliable transportation, you need an auto loan. Every single creditunion that has run the Zombie Invasion campaign has met or exceededtheir loan goals.” PTP's site highlights about eight testimonialsfrom credit unions and their results from Zombie Invasioncampaigns.

The agency recently worked with a Wyoming credit union that rana “Strip Your Rate” campaign for an auto loan refinanceproduct.

“You could be pretty boring by just saying, 'Hey, refi your autoloans with us,' or you can encourage your members to 'strip theirauto loan rate,'” Lay said. “It is totally tongue-in-cheek. It'snot provocative beyond the messaging. But that's the whole point.If we can make people do a double take when they see or hear an ad,then it can help you reach your goals. The Wyoming credit union, bythe way, crushed their loan goal.”