FISHERS, Ind. — There is a science to creating an effective credit union ad, and some of the elements might be surprising. At the CU Water Cooler Symposium at FORUM Credit Union, Maya Bourdeau, partner at marketing firm Attune, shared research insights on what slogans, imagery and facts get consumers to consider leaving their bank.

Bourdeau spoke about her experience working with the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues and the Filene Research Institute to develop a print ad campaign for credit unions in California, Nevada and Arizona. The campaign was tested on a sample group comprising 12 people selected to reflect a mix of gender, income level and age. Bourdeau explained that the views of such a diverse group can be extrapolated to determine the views of 100 people.

Several versions of the ad were evaluated against a control group of statewide campaigns, and one particular iteration was found to be most likely to get people to seek more information about credit unions and most likely to be chosen as their favorite ad.