LATHAM, N.Y. — Relying on a new branding message to emphasize membership eligibility and a grassroots focus, the New York State Credit Union League said last week it is launching an aggressive and broad-based media campaign Oct. 1 under the slogan, "Credit Unions, Open to You, True To You."
The blitz coinciding with International Credit Union Week and using network and cable TV, plus radio, billboards and the Internet represents a departure from past campaigns targeted mainly at legislators in Albany, said league officials.
The three-week campaign with CU links to an "interactive" consumer Web site, www.credit-unionsFORYOU.com, is aimed at educating both current members and the general public about the CU service role emphasizing "almost any New Yorker can join" a CU. That message is designed to dispel prevalent myths on membership eligibility, said league officials.
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The campaign, which has been in the works since last year, will include 30-second TV spots on stations in Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse and Long Island, said Camille Aleixo, the league's vice president of marketing and communication.
In addition, billboards will run in a six-county metro area surrounding New York City with overall coverage selection based on the highest CU member concentration, said Aleixo.
Cost of the campaign was not disclosed with an Oklahoma City agency, Third Degree Advertising, hired to do the creative and helping handle media buys.
Third Degree has some 40 CU clients across the U.S. plus a handful of state leagues for which it has also done awareness and advocacy campaigns. Filming of the TV spots airing in New York was done in Oklahoma City, said Rob Poynor, the firm's Dallas-based director of strategic planning for credit unions.
Poynor, who said he was hired by Third Degree last year, said the New York league ads, which are already running on the Web site, were designed to show "emotional motivation and life stage events" in terms of how the public can view CUs as their chief financial provider.
"It's not just checking accounts that make the difference for someone picking a financial institution," he said, but rather in the ability of that institution to find solutions to life's problems.
In a prepared release, the New York league added that "the visual cornerstone of the campaign is a blue marker and so the idea of 'making your mark' represents how member-owned means empowering people to control their finances, their goals and their lives."
As part of the marketing materials to be distributed, blue magic markers will be handed out to consumers in CU lobbies supported by lobby posters showing the "blue marker" signage, said league officials.
The league said the Web site provides "information on a range of topics about credit unions, how to find a local or national credit union, financial education articles, financial calculators, and more."
"To further maximize the campaign, a number of creative components are available to league-affiliated credit unions," said the release. "They include four-color posters and flyers, web banners and buttons, branded markers, and the use of radio spots that have been produced."
As comprehensive as the campaign is, league officials said the blitz might have encompassed smaller New York markets had it not been that dues income dried up forcing an ad cutback, particularly on radio.
Since last April, the league has been one of the most outspoken across the U.S. in detailing its "disaffiliation problem" or the loss of members as a result of mergers or internal affronts which the league management maintains is hurting industry outreach, lobbying and performance.
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