Mississippi Licenses Pa iBelong CU Awareness Campaign

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Mississippi Credit Union Association is hoping that consumers there will soon be stepping up to say “I belong.”

MSCUA has signed a licensing agreement to run the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association's iBelong credit union awareness campaign in Mississippi.

Wanting to build awareness among locals, the MSCUA cooperative awareness campaign committee determined after research of several statewide campaigns, that licensing PCUA's iBelong campaign would save time, energy and dollars to most effectively meet Mississippi's goal of increased awareness.

“The consistent iBelong campaign messages of 'credit unions are for everyone,' 'better rates and fees' and 'credit unions care' will increase awareness of credit unions and the credit union difference in Mississippi,” said MSCUA President/CEO Charles Elliott. “We feel this is an initiative our credit unions can get excited about and support.”

The iBelong campaign launched on television and radio stations throughout Pennsylvania in July 2006 and was licensed by the Illinois Credit Union League in 2008. Consumers interested in joining a credit union are invited to visit the iBelong.org Web site for online search locators. The Web site also features the commercials and credit union facts.

The MSCUA Board of Directors approved an association contribution of $100,000 to help license and launch the campaign. Credit unions will be asked to contribute $1 per member in Mississippi for additional funding. All the credit union contributions will be used for advertising placement for a television and radio campaign that will span most of 2009.

“With 100% participation from our membership, we can begin to change the way Mississippi consumers think about credit unions and assist them in finding one to belong,” said Elliott.

As an incentive, credit unions contributing will have access to supplemental marketing materials that complement the commercials, allowing credit unions to piggy back on the campaign's momentum. Participants will also have a listing in the iBelong Web site's credit union search locator tools. Under the licensing agreement, MSCUA will employ the existing iBelong Web site (www.iBelong.org) as one of the key drivers and primary measurement tools for the campaign.

–mdigiovanni@cutimes.com