WASHINGTON -- Look out for the Little Guy because you ain't seen nothing yet.

CUNA has pushed its credit union service to the Little Guy campaign on Capitol Hill with life-size cut outs to pose for pictures, cartoon ads in targeted newspapers, an online movie, and tag board Little Guy handouts highlighting the credit union difference. Now, after just a few months of introduction, CUNA is revamping its lookoutforthelittleguy.org Web site.

"What we decided to do is put a lot more emphasis on the Web site," CUNA Vice President of Communications and Media Outreach Pat Keefe said. He said CUNA feels it has been pretty successful in building LG's visibility with the leagues--apparently in Florida they felt comfortable enough with LG to "Floridize" him with a loud Hawaiian shirt--and on the Hill. Now it is time to drive more people to the site in CUNA's push to "change the conversation" on Capitol Hill.

As LG and the site are particularly targeted toward Gen X and Y Hill staffers, the concept of the site is to be less formal and still provide useful information about credit unions and banks while driving home key points. "With all the blah blah blah from banks, we realized the straight-up facts about the differences between banks and credit unions are getting lost," www.lookoutforthelittleguy.org reads.

The new homepage will feature a link to the Bankometer, Keefe explained, which "will be a place where anyone can go and find out what the banks are up to with regard to credit unions." For example, when the banking trades send a letter to Congress on credit unions, CUNA will post it along with a letter point by point tearing down the bankers' arguments. A "truth squad," Keefe said.
There will also be a "People vs. Profit" quiz, sort of tongue in cheek questions about banks--CUNA is still trying to figure out how to grade them if test takers are interested.

Fun photo ops with LG and members of Congress and others will also be posted there as they continue to roll in to CUNA from the leagues and credit unions, as well as the cartoon ads CUNA has run. Be on the "look out" for more.
While these items might draw young people to the Web site, which will be linked to CUNA's, it also will provide serious information on the credit union difference. A bright red "Hot Topic" button will appear in the middle, initially to include information regarding CURIA--the Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act (H.R. 1537). "The whole object is to put this in front of Congress and their staffs," Keefe said.

Additionally, "The Good Word" will be a section to share credit union success and feel-good stories with visitors.