ROCHESTER, N.Y. — For credit unions, the BizKid$ bandwagon has been on a roll for the last six weeks, with "kickoff" parties, raffles, and family events occurring–along with the all-important CU branding and messaging appearing at the end of each TV episode on local public broadcast channels across the U.S.
State leagues and foundations along with executives at scores of participating CUs from Buffalo to Seattle were lavishing praise on the official launch of the BizKid$ series, which is aimed at educating young people and their parents about financial issues.
"Let me tell you my 8-year-old son who never sits for long just loved the show," said Laurie Baker, chief operating officer of The Summit FCU here. Two weeks ago The Summit began running 30-second tag lines at the end of the weekly half-hour episode debuting on a Rochester PBS station.
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To herald the start of BizKid$ in upstate New York, The Summit held a special "BizKid$ Bash" inviting the local media and hundreds of youngsters who ate cake and visited booths at Rochester station WXXI.
"Approximately 150 kids had a sneak peek at a future episode of the program and they seemed to really enjoy it," said Baker. There were also family activities, refreshments, prizes and a drawing for three $100 credit union savings accounts at Summit.
Local broadcast support for the show and the ads came from The Summit, ESL Federal Credit Union, also of Rochester, and other area CUs.
On March 1, PBS station WMHT and the New York Credit Union Foundation will sponsor a BizKid$ booth at the annual Kids Expo at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, which will be promoting the series. This annual family event draws between 10,000 and 12,000 attendees.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, the Washington Credit Union League, the chief cheerleader for BizKid$ the last two years, said it joined up with Junior Achievement Worldwide to hold a separate "Kickoff Rap Party" for 100 youngsters in Auburn, Wash., a Seattle suburb and the site of a JA workshop facility.
"We had all kinds of BizKid$ actors, producers, and technicians join the party," said RoxAnne Kruger, BizKid$ project manager at the Washington Credit Union Foundation and industry chief national spokesman for BizKid$ fundraising along with the National Credit Union Foundation.
Late last month the Washington league and NCUF conducted a national hour-long Webinar to allow sponsoring CUs, leagues, and foundations to ask questions, hear the rundown of branding events, and view pilot ads on a BizKid$ Web site (www.bizkids.com).
"The number of PBS stations committing to carry Biz Kid$ is growing daily," reported Kruger, noting that now more than 279 PBS stations have signed on representing "blanket nationwide coverage" or 81% of network outlets.
Kruger said the show's penetration covers 20 of the top 25 media markets. There are 26 episodes over a two-year contract with each year costing CU sponsors $2.6 million. A number of stations have said they will begin airing the show when room opens in their high-definition schedules this spring or as a summer replacement, according to Kruger.
Produced in High Definition TV format, Biz Kid$, she said, will benefit from "common carriage on all public HDTV stations in addition to airing on the standard analog formatted stations." Common carriage, Kruger explained, means that Biz Kid$ will be scheduled on the same day in the same time slot each week on the more than 100 HDTV formatted PBS stations.
Several leagues and their member CUs were using existing co-op awareness campaigns to plug into the 30-second time slots at the beginning or end of the show.
On Feb. 1, for instance, the New Jersey league started running "Bob the Credit Union Guy" commercials on the New Jersey Network, the statewide PBS outlet.
"BizKid$ is a great way to show consumers that credit unions are committed to educating young people about financial issues," said Paul Gentile, president/CEO of the New Jersey Credit Union League.
"The younger we can get them, the better chance they will have the tools to make sound financial decisions as they grow up," he added. "Here in New Jersey, we continue to look for opportunities to brand great causes like BizKid$."
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