CORVALLIS, Ore. – When brass Media Inc. Founder/CEO Bryan Sims burst onto the credit union scene with a bold idea of helping credit unions connect to young adults with a magazine written by and for people age 18- 25 called brass|CU Young today, Rich tomorrow – execs didn't quite know what to make of the 21-year old. Well what a difference a year has made. From its initial 10 credit union clients and 29,899 readers, brass|MEDIA Inc. has grown to serve 57 credit unions, and with the release of its February issue brass|CU will be mailed to 92,057 young adult credit union members across the country. Positioned as both an educational and marketing tool, the magazine is designed to provide straight talk about money-how to make it, how to manage it and how to multiply it. In addition to discussing "the money side of life" articles provided by freelance writers across the country cover other topics relevant to the young adult life ranging from the do's and don'ts of throwing a party and features on other successful young entrepreneurs, to the ins and outs of networking and the inside scoop on buying a car with no regrets. The quarterly magazine costs $5.99 per subscription and a customized credit union package is available at an annual fixed cost of $2,995 for a 1,000 subscription order. The customization package includes a credit union branded magazine cover complete with CU logo and colors, CU ads in the issue; and a CU co-branded Web site brasscu.com that can link directly to the credit union's Web site. "It's funny. Eighteen months ago this was just an idea I'd thrown around and now we're being contacted by credit unions from across the country," said Sims. "The other day I was in the premier executive line at the airport and someone came over to tell me I must be on the wrong line because I just looked too young to be a premier executive. Life is pretty good and it's exciting." Still living in the dorms and taking classes, Sims says there are no "typical days" anymore and that keeps things interesting. "It's like I lead a double life – after flying across the country, meeting with credit union executives or speaking at conferences, I make it back to the dorm in time to play a game of touch football," joked Sims. "Our goal looking forward is to make sure we continue to put out a quality publication and listen to our credit union clients. We created the initial vehicle and now we have to come up with new and effective ways credit unions can leverage that vehicle." Sims' frequent flyer miles keep building as he has also been on the travel circuit talking about how credit unions can create more ties to their younger members. This year Sims can be heard at a variety of upcoming credit union conferences and events including the CUES CEO Summit, CUNA Mutual's Discovery Conference and several annual league meetings. In addition, a meeting in October 2003, with Bob Hoel discussing how to transform the image of credit unions from "dad's financial" into being a younger membership-based CU led to Sims working as a consultant for the Filene Research Institute, which is developing a report for attracting and retaining young adults and families. brass Media staffers have also grown from Sims and his father/COO Steve Sims to nine with plans for another possible five to 10 new hires tentatively slated by the end of 2005-2006. Sims is also in the process of leasing additional office space to house the growing organization. One of the company's major initiatives is to create a recruiting system for writers at colleges and newspapers across the country to maintain a constant connection to young adults and keeping the magazine content fresh. "I enjoy the culture in the office. The average age is about 25-26 so it is pretty young, but we still have a few gray hairs on staff too and it makes for an interesting mix," said Sims. "The biggest reward so far is not only being able to interact with so many different people across the country but that the magazine has been able to affect people in a positive way. " To ensure the magazine topics remain interesting, future plans include developing reader surveys to better gauge ways to improve content. In addition, brass Media Inc. is branching out into creating a series of ads to help credit unions better target younger members. " Our greatest challenge has transformed from what's the credit union response going to be to now how we can keep up in terms of staying in touch and growing as the publication grows," said Sims. " It is a good challenge to have. This year young adults are the hot topic, and almost every state league has a breakout session or roundtable on it, so our goal is to continue to improve and keep pace with the movement." So just how much of an impact if any has the magazine had for those 10 initial clients who took the chance on brass? Sims says he's heard a few good things anecdotally like parents calling in to compliment the credit union for offering the magazine or others contacting the credit union to find out more information on accounts offered, but nothing solid in terms of number of accounts opened etc. That being said, brass|CU has reported 100% renewals from original clients. As far as whether younger members are reading brass, OSU Federal Credit Union mailed 1,398 questionnaires in August 27, 2004 to its brass|CU magazine recipients to find out. Recipients were young adults between 18-20 years of age who resided in Linn and Benton Counties. The completed questionnaires were to be returned by September 10 via the OSU Federal Web site or by mail. Some 106 or 7.6% of the recipients responded to the questionnaire and found the following: Over 70% of the respondents indicated they read brass|CU magazine. Over 50% of the respondents read the magazine because it contains articles concerning issues that apply to them. More than 65% of the respondents were satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the current style and format of the magazine. Nearly 70% of the respondents indicated that were satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the content of the magazine. Almost 60% of the respondents indicated that they obtain information about financial matters from their parents. Over 70% of the respondents indicated that they want to continue to receive the magazine and find value in it. " Not only do we know that people are reading the magazine, we were pleased when they told us about the response rate which is higher than the national average direct marketing or telemarketing rate of 5.78%. It shows that this is a segment credit unions can't just write off," said Sims. "It's like when Rolling Stone magazine decided not to include the growing rap and hip-hop market, so MTV came along and snatched a big part of that market. Now Rolling Stone is still a great magazine but strategically they handed that market to MTV, and it is important that credit unions don't do the same thing in terms of skipping this young adult generation. The way we look at it is we try to make sure we've helped CUs stay with the times and keep in touch with the younger market." Sims says there is no one easy answer to serving this market, and it takes a combination of approaches from the simple like researching young adult interests and forming advisory groups of people in that age group to listen to what they want, to reshaping the way credit unions operate so they can build relationships. "It is about looking at the lifetime value of the member," said Sims. "The young adult buying patterns are very relationship driven so there is a lot credit unions can do in the community or getting involved with organizations geared toward young adults so that credit unions are the first place this generation turns to at the key transitional moments of their lives." [email protected]
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