WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Determined to make wider use of blogs and Internet advertising, the $200 million Members Credit Union took out ads this week on three local Web sites to expand its three year old "Football Pick 'em" game promotion.
The low-cost, quirky ads are aimed at building membership and are accompanied by homegrown videos showing the members as staff on its own Web site as part of a branding campaign to stress "the human side" of CU operations.
The videos and the entire game promotion, now open for the first time to the public, was drawing wide praise in North Carolina this week as "new and innovative examples" of viral advertising.
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"We're trying to figure out how to really harness the web for advertising and by expanding this NFL pick the winners contest beyond our members to the general public" said Matt Davis, director of public relations.
The Internet ads, costing $1,500, are appearing on Web sites of a Winston-Salem TV station and local papers in Hope Mills and Hickory. The videos were viewed over 2,700 times in their first week, said Davis.
"We did anticipate high traffic so we uploaded the videos to YouTube to reduce the strain on the credit union's servers," said Davis.
Football Pick'em, now with 1,500 players, is a free, online contest the CU started in 2004 to help identify members who have Internet access at home, said Davis. A weekly e-mail is sent out to all players to announce weekly, monthly, and overall winners with top prizes including a gas grill and a laptop computer.
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