Kevin Foster-Keddie, head of the co-op committee and president/CEO of Washington State Employees Credit Union of Olympia, said the Feb. 25 Academy Awards purchase "might be just right" for the demographics of the campaign with an eye toward reaching young women, a target market.

Members of the co-op committee, with links to the Washington Credit Union League, were slated to meet last week in league offices to plot the ad buys and the campaign strategy, said Foster-Keddie.

Hired to handle ad creation, production and branding strategy for the campaign is Big Bang Seattle, an agency that has done work for Fox Sports Network, the Puyallup Fair and Brooks running shoes.

Responsible for the corollary "viral marketing" portion for Internet/iPod and possibly YouTube is Boom Creative, whose President/Owner Daniel Thorpe is a former marketing manager at Spokane Teachers Credit Union and who was a CUNA "Best of Show" winner last year.

Thorpe, who left the Spokane CU in July to start Boom Creative, currently does video work for CUNA conference promotions.

The president of Big Bang, Bill Grant, said CUs have a major problem in today's market: "they are invisible" and the new campaign, to start in February/March is designed to change that notion.

"Credit union associations and organizations across the country will be watching the effort to see if the campaign gets traction," he forecast.

It is interesting, he observed, that "the great majority of people are with banks, and only a tiny portion of them say they're satisfied. Whereas the fraction of people who are with credit unions swear by them."

The campaign goal, thus, is "to make more bank customers notice and consider credit unions for any of their financial and banking needs," he said.

Bank customers have on average five financial relationships, but "they're not as loyal to they usedto be."

"So we're not looking for people to move their whole banking life over to CUs. But we know that when they try it, they will anyway. We just have to help get them to the table.

"Credit unions aren't interested in taking over the world," he said. "It's just that the barrier to becoming members is not as rigid and now more people can take advantage of the benefits and experience."

The Washington State co-op group, which includes one CU from Alaska, has long been a leader in innovative TV ads, but a year ago took sharp blogger hits for some of the "Together Better" ads that had a "Rapper" theme. Members complained about a faulty image "for their credit union" and the ads were pulled from the market and the former agency dropped.

But in February 2006 it profited from a publicity blitz triggered by the good fortune of airing a 30-second, $70,000 television ad appearing on the Seattle ABC affiliate during halftime of the Super Bowl.

In charting the 2007 campaign, Grant said he hopes to inject some "magic" into the CU image in Washington State.

"By their nature, credit unions are humble and so are their customers," observed Grant. "They don't toot their own horn very loud. So people have never been able to put their finger on what a credit union is and what the banking experience would feel like.

"Credit unions are sort of a cult," he continued, "where only the customers inside really know how great it is. It's like being a parent, you don't really know until you have one." –[email protected]