In the spirit of paying it forward, PhiladelphiaFederal Credit Union launched a new promotion that banks on thekindness of strangers.

As a way to open new accounts while also enhancing communitystewardship, the $910 million cooperative said it strategicallyplaced 100 wallets on the ground in a neighborhood it serves.

Lucky locals that picked up the wallets discovered aPFCU-branded coupon thanking them for picking up the lost walletand instructing them to keep it as a gift.

They are then invited to bring the coupon into the creditunion's branch to enter a raffle for a chance to win $250. Forthose who turn in the coupon by Dec. 31 and open a new account,PFCU said it will make the first $5 deposit.

“Since this particular branch is still relatively new, wethought the wallet drop promotion would be a great way to getPFCU's name out there and a good incentive for the people living inthe community to get to know us better,” PFCU Branch Manager KatieKitchenman, said, who worked with Assistant Manager Christina Lerroand Teller Supervisor Kerry Buchalski to create the campaign.

“The goal of the Lost Wallet Promotion was to develop a fun,unique guerilla marketing campaign to attract local residents toopen up new accounts, and ultimately, take advantage of the manyother services PFCU offers to help members become financiallysecure,” Kitchenman said.

The campaign was easy to execute, inexpensive and effective, shenoted.

“We've had a great response to this initiative so far,”Kitchenman said. “In the short amount of time since the walletswere dropped, eight people have already come to the branch to turnin the coupons and six of those have opened new accounts.”

“So far, the accounts that we have opened have increased ourdeposits by $5,000,” Kitchenman added. “It was easy to execute andthe ROI alone speaks volumes.”

The credit union spent less than $125 to purchase the walletsand created the coupon in-house, according to Kitchenman.

“While we were dropping the wallets in the neighborhoodthe reaction to the people picking them up was amazing,” Kitchenmanrecalled. “People were running down the street yelling, 'Ma'am youdropped your wallet!' As we giggled, we told them, 'it's not ours,someone else must have dropped it,' and we continued on ourway.”

PFCU documented locations of wallets to track pickup over thenext few weeks, Kitchenman said.

“While we weren't expecting a surge of people rushing into thebranch to turn in the wallets, we are hopeful that more and morepeople will begin to trickle in as more wallets are discovered,”she said. “We anticipated that it might be something people getaround to when they have some downtime, which is why we said thecoupons [in the wallets] could be redeemed through the end ofDecember.”

Kitchenman recommended that other cooperatives try theapproach.

“I would absolutely recommend other [credit unions] try asimilar promotion, but they should consider doing so in the springor summer,” she suggested.

“We started planning in June and between ordering the walletsand coupons and planning the drop-off locations, the campaigndidn't end up being rolled out until late fall,” Kitchenmansaid.