Credit unions from coast to coast tapped into pop culture,entertainment and social media to raise awareness, engage membersand increase revenue in 2013.

Some co-ops took unusual steps to capture members' attention.For example, the $522 million Credit Union of America in Wichita,Kan., invited attendees at its annual meeting in March to join indoing the Harlem Shake, a popular dance, and to create a video.

To promote the video, the credit union offered $10 iTunes giftcards to the first 500 members to view it, a milestone reached inless than 48 hours, the credit union said.

Crisp concepts, such as One Nevada Credit Union's BACONpromotion, also heralded new products and services, such as Ca$hPerks, KeepTrack and free text alerts.

The $700 million Las Vegas co-op served up the BACON (Bad A$$Checking from One Nevada) campaign by producing a series of threecommercials featuring a bacon-obsessed mom, digital billboards andprint ads featuring a slice of bacon in various situations, such assporting a trendy moustache.

Speaking of facial hair, two executives at the $2 billion NewJersey-based Affinity Federal Credit Union took part in a beardgrowing contest this fall to awareness about prostate cancer aspart of the Movember (moustache + November) campaign for men'shealth, which began in Australia several years ago.

Another trend that began a few years ago has continued to growwith the popularity of movies such as “Zombieland” and “World WarZ”. More than a dozen credit unions unleashed the power of thewalking dead this year with zombie-related initiatives.

For example, Michigan Community Credit Union deployed the undeadin October to revive auto loan revenue. The $120 million Jackson,Mich., organization rolled out Zombie Invasion, a multi-channelengagement campaign that includes a lead-generating microsite,humorous interactive video and an online loan application.

In the past two years, more than 30 credit unions have purchasedZombie Invasion for about $4,000 and many have reported rapid ROI,said Pasadena, Texas-based CU GROW, which designed the off-the-rackcampaign.

Another popular movie – “Superman: Man of Steel”, which hittheaters this summer, prompted CU GROW to create a campaign forBossier FCU that resulted in an additional $1.4 in loan revenue intwo months, the Louisiana credit union said.

The superhero campaign included hosting a midnight screening ofthe film at a local theater, a dedicated microsite, emailmarketing, social media outreach, a text-to-win promo and a contestthat encouraged people to nominate local heroes to win $250 for thehero and $250 for themselves.

“We wanted to tap into the pop culture buzz surrounding the “Manof Steel” movie,” said Shawn Temple, chief operating officer at the$150 million co-op in Bossier City, La. “In two months, we realizedan additional $1.4 million in loan volume as a direct result of thedigital marketing strategy, and the income generated doubled thatof the program costs.”

At least one marketing professional predicts pop culture willcontinue to play a major role in financial marketing in 2014.

“With a constant awareness of what is relevant to consumers intheir lives beyond finances, credit unions can continue to generateleads for loans and new accounts through the correlation ofpatterns in pop culture,” said James Robert Lay, CEO of CUGrow.