The industry's recent revved-up marketing pitch to "drop-ditch-dump" a bank is getting stoked this holiday weekend with a newly launched TV/radio/billboard and airplane banner blitz by the $1.2 billion BayPort Credit Union of Newport News, Va.
The "Ditch Your Bank" campaign formally debuted a month ago using a website and small classified-type ads in addition to radio/TV spots. BayPort is looking for a 20% jump in new accounts by the year's end, said Monte Crowl, vice president of marketing.
As part of the Fourth of July promotion, the CU and a local radio station are giving away $20 free gas on Saturday with CU staffers doing the pumping and plugging their institution at a Hampton Roads outlet.
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In addition, a "Ditch Your Bank" banner will fly over the skies of Virginia beaches, said Crowl, adding that the campaign, like others across the country, is stressing CU value over banks at a time "the national media is giving us such good coverage." He cited recent New York Times and Wall Street Journal articles plus a new Gallup Poll favoring CUs.
Bayport's creative campaign for "Ditch," including the website and commercials, was created by the Foolproof group in Florida, which has been promoting the educational financial literacy effort through state leagues for the past several years. The latest promotion hits on the 18-35 demographic.
Meanwhile, the $545 million Consumers CU of Waukegan, Ill., said it has experienced notable success with a "Dump Your Bank" campaign in northern Illinois.
"Our campaign has grown in stages and we first introduced the '8 Great Reasons' to use a credit union instead of a bank and went from there," said Hal Coxon, vice president of sales/marketing.
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