LOS ANGELES – A Southern California cooperative radioadvertising campaign aimed at educating consumers about creditunions is slated to begin airing again in March. The campaign,using the same commercials that aired last year, comes on the heelsof CUNA's annual Governmental Affairs Conference in Washington,D.C. Just like the GAC, the commercials “are about advocacy,”insisted Teresa Y. Freeborn, senior vice president of marketing andcommunications for Kinecta Federal Credit Union and chairperson ofthe Southern California Cooperative Ad Program. “We go on the Hilland we make presentations to congressional representative andsenators and their staffs,” she said. “But there's some reallybasic stuff missing. People don't even know what a credit union is,how we differ from a bank. They don't know that we're a better dealthan a bank would be for them and for consumers and theirconstituents. “We see this as a real critical part of the advocacyrole,” she said of the commercials. “Maybe that's the problem. Wecall it marketing, not advocacy.” The four 60-second spots, usemythical creatures – the Loch Ness monster, a leprechaun, an alienfrom outer space and Bigfoot – to try to dispel myths about creditunions. The ads note that anyone can join a credit union, thatcredit unions have a large network of ATMs and that they offer awide range of products and services. The ads advise listeners tocheck the Web site at www.findacreditunion.org to learn more. Thespots will be heard every other week on radio stations in LosAngeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties.The ads, aimed at a 25-54 age demographic, will be aired throughmid-July, Freeborn said. The media buy was approximately $750,000.There were no production costs since the ads were created lastyear. The 2003 campaign ran $1 million and included outdoorbillboards. Outdoor advertising was scrapped this year because itwas not as effective as the radio spots, Freeborn said. Some 30Southern California credit unions voluntarily contributed to thecurrent campaign. The funding formula, revised his year, wasdesigned to attract more participation especially from smallercredit unions, Freeborn said. Freeborn lamented the fact that withso many credit unions in Southern California, so few had signed onto the program. “What is unfortunate is that we don't have morepeople at the table,” she said. “If we had more people at thetable, then we'd all pay a little bit less and we'd probably allget more bang for the dollar. Those that don't participatefinancially still enjoy benefits of it anyway because it (each ad)is generic. It speaks to image and awareness of credit unions.”Freeborn said she would like to see the ad campaign expanded to ayear-round program and that contributions be mandatory. She alsosaid she would like to see it go statewide, something theCalifornia Credit Union League attempted in the past. That effortfailed to garner enough support. “This is our business,” Freebornsaid. “If we want to have this business in the future, then we haveto pay attention to the research. And the research tells us thatpeople just don't know that they can join a credit union. Theresearch tells us people don't know we have as many ATMs as banksdo, in fact more. People don't know we offer all of the productsand services a bank does. And all of that with superior servicelevels. “Who's going to tell them that?” she asked. “You think youcan do that with your own limited budget at your credit union?You're wrong. You can't. I'm here to tell you that you can't.”Freeborn said some credit unions balked at participating becausethey didn't want to pay when others basically got a free ride. “Itputs us in a heck of a bind because we don't have the authority totax anyone for this,” she said. “This is a cooperative effort,strictly voluntary.” Other credit unions said they felt they coulddo better spending their marketing dollars promoting their ownspecific programs, she reported. Freeborn, however, said the twocampaigns were entirely different and shouldn't be viewed as “oneor the other.” The co-op ads are designed to improve the image andawareness of credit unions. If that message can get through, shesaid, credit unions can spend more time advertising their ownspecific benefits, products and services and rates, rather thanhaving to explain the credit union difference. “I don't mix the twoup,” Freeborn said. “What I have to do though, is because thereisn't enough image and awareness of credit unions that is positive,every time I run a radio ad I have to spend a good one-third of myad explaining what a credit union is. “If you're in business,you've got to be part of some joint effort to improve image andawareness of the whole industry,” she added. “Then you've got to doyour own advertising.” -

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