MANCHESTER, N.H. — It's not everyday you turn 100 and St. Mary'sBank, the industry's first credit union, plans on celebrating wellinto 2009.

The credit union kicked off the festivities with a newtelevision ad honoring its first century as a proud, long-standingmember of both Manchester and New Hampshire. The new ad, whichfeatures faces and images of the city, premiered during the Jan. 27broadcast of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” that was filmed inManchester late last year.

“We're proud and excited to have our 100th anniversary ad airfor the first time during a program featuring the great city ofManchester,” said St. Mary's Bank President/CEO Ronald J. Rioux.“In preparing for this 100th birthday it renewed our interest inhelping different population groups much like we did when we gotour start in 1908.” According to St. Mary's Bank Director ofMarketing Elizabeth Stodolski, it has been incredible to see howover a year of planning is coming together.

“We're the first credit union in the country and we take that asan honor for St. Mary's to be symbolic of the birth of the industryin the U.S.,” said Stodolski. “Early on we realized we needed thisto be more than just a celebration of where we've been but also anopportunity to strongly position our credit union for thefuture.”

To that end the credit union went all out and together withtheir local advertising agency developed a television campaign thatrevolves around the message of the credit union being a place whereyou belong.

“We licensed the popular song Up Where You Belong and changedthe words to reinforce the idea that this is the place youliterally belong as a member and figuratively we're here to meetyour financial needs,” said Stodolski. “To further drive theemotional message home we married that to local images of theplaces and faces of New Hampshire.”

In addition to a 60-second, image-heavy television commercial,the credit union had two 30-second versions of the ad that focusedon brand awareness and product messaging.

“It all came together perfectly with the writer's strike and theNew Hampshire primaries. The Home Edition Extreme Makeover showthat our commercial aired on coincidentally turned out to be theone that helped a local family in Manchester and was viewed by alarge local audience,” said Stodolski. “And luckily enough thestrike ended in time for the Academy Awards to go on as plannedbecause we also had premium placement during that as well. It was awonderful media buying opportunity.”

The 100th Anniversary campaign also includes print and radiocomponents. To keep the excitement going year round Stodolski saysseveral events will be planned throughout the duration of thecampaign.

“This is just the start of a celebration that will extend into2009 so it is important that we keep it fresh so the advertisingcan be rotated so it doesn't get stale,” said Stodolski.

To draw on the power of word of mouth, St. Mary's is holding apromotion called “Bags to Riches” where one lucky member can win$100,000. Slated to kickoff at the end of March through April, thepromotion is tied to a local popular radio station. Members entertheir name to win and if their name is called on the radio and theycall in they win $100 and are entered into the contest. Alleligible contestants will then be invited to the St. Mary'sheadquarters and one will be randomly selected for a chance to pickout which of the 100 bags on display that contains $100,000. Evenif the $100,000 bag isn't selected the individual is guaranteed towin $10,000.

The credit union is also inviting members to get involved andupload a photo and share their St. Mary's Bank story. It can beabout whatever they want to talk about from their first home orcelebrating their new American status. Stodolski says it is aboutshowing members they are a valued part of the celebration. Plansare also underway for other events including member thank you daysand fun outdoor events during the summer.

“It was important to us to show that as a credit union we existsolely to serve our members and we wanted them involved in theprocess so in our message we had to showcase real people and realmembers about town,” said Stodolski. “In addition to honoring ourhistory we want to give potential members reasons to give us a tryand our celebration is designed to help us further develop and growour membership while having lots of fun along the way.

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