A rare event happens when a crowd of credit union professionalsgather in a room and they all agree on the discussed topic. Somemay even describe it as a miracle.

Yet, this actually happened during a CUNA GAC break out sessionlast month when credit union executives and employees from acrossthe nation all seemed to have nothing but positive comments about anew marketing campaign, Open Your Eyes, which may become the nextgame changer for the credit union industry.

“This is the third national branding effort that we've had inthe credit union system,” said Rich Helber, president/CEO of the$695 million Tropical Financial Credit Union in Miramar, Fla.“We've made more progress than anybody else ever has. I really lovewhat you're doing.”

“Brilliant!” exclaimed millennial employee Tyler Kuhn, who worksin marketing and community relations at the $462 million DoverFederal Credit Union in Dover, Del. “You guys did a brilliantjob.”

Nhu Q. Yeargin, a board member of the $2.5 billion LangleyFederal Credit Union in Newport News, Va., said she loved thediversity of the images portrayed in an Open Your Eyes marketingvideo.

“In my view, we need to be all in, and to be all in we shouldseriously consider recommending that this (marketing campaign) bepart of our duty to want to go for this nationally.” said DaveGunderson, president/CEO of the $1.4 billion Credit Union ofSouthern California in Anaheim.

Several other credit union professionals had similar remarks,noting that they were impressed with the extensiveness of theresearch compiled by CUNA's Creating Awareness Advisory Group,organized about two years ago to find why the industry's marketshare is lagging. Over the last 25 years, the credit unionindustry's market share has grown by a paltry 1.8%, from 5.6% in1992 to about 7.4% in 2017, according to CUNA. In contrast, thenation's top 100 banks have substantially expanded their marketshare from 41% to 75% from 1992 to 2006.

While it seemed credit union executives were eager to leveragethe Open Your Eyes initiative as soon as possible, Douglas Kiker,CUNA's chief communications officer who organized and led theCreating Awareness Advisory Group, strongly recommends that creditunion executives first invest the time to read and study the OpenYour Eyes messaging guide because it explains what the researchmeans and how it can work in the marketplace.

“This is a document that we are going to spend a lot of timehelping credit unions utilize through webinars, one-on-one trainingsessions and through all sorts of training vehicles,” Kiker said.“We really do want to bring this to life, and help you as you beginto think about your marketing and begin to think about how youmight take advantage of this tremendous investment that we havemade into this document,” he said.

Read expanded coverage of this story in the March 21st issueof CU Times.