FREMONT, Mich. — Gerber Federal Credit Union's first giveaway campaign has been quite the ice-breaker.

The credit union's "Join the Click" campaign promoting e-statements is still generating member buzz long after the three grand prizes of a Dell laptop computer, HP digital camera and an Apple iPod were handed out to three lucky members– Steven Earl, Brooke Tilden and Terra Kirk respectively. "We wanted to get people excited about our e-statements and the prize incentive was kind of a new initiative for us," said Gerber FCU Marketing Manger Heather Wiersema. "The response has been amazing. We had over 500 members sign up for the service during the promotion and are still adding more every day." Designed in-house and launched last October, the two-month campaign was promoted via newsletters, in branch promotional posters and on the home page of the credit union's Web site. Wiersema adds that an online demonstration of the simplicity and convenience of the e-statements right on the Web site helped drive the credit union to exceed its goal of 300. "Members had been asking for e-statements so we knew it would be popular but by showing them what the process would look like and giving them convenient options to sign up either online or printing the application out and faxing it to us really made all the difference," said Wiersema.

In addition staffers had the added incentive of receiving two paid hours off should the CU meet its enrollment goal.