Dallas credit union to launch Young & Free knockoff
The Dallas Morning News reports that Resource One Credit Union based out of Dallas, TX is launching a competition for a “spokester” on August 13.
Contestants will submit a 500-word blog and video online during the first phase of the competition. Resource One will then select the top finalists who will have to solicit votes from their community of peers. Top finalists will demonstrate their ability to create viral buzz by creating campaigns that drive votes for their candidacy.
The candidate with the most votes will then be selected as the MyLifeMyMoney “spokester” on October 31, 2008. The winner gets use of a Scion, a phone, laptop, video camera and part-time salary for a year.
The credit union promises more details will be available at their website next week.
Resource One is calling the campaign “My Life, My Money,” coupling it with the tagline, “Banking for my generation.” That generation would, of course, be the highly coveted Gen-Y audience financial institutions across North America are targeting.
The campaign is almost identical to Common Wealth Credit Union’s Young & Free Alberta initiative that was launched up in Canada a little less than a year ago. MyLifeMyMoney copies essentially every component of Young & Free, including the overall strategy, the spokester’s responsibilities, the media used, and the incentives offered to the spokester. Even the term spokester is borrowed from Young & Free.
It’s not clear whether the credit union will be deploying a sub-branded microsite to support the campaign, but based on the Young & Free blueprint, the safe bet is “yes.”
To see the outline for the Young & Free campaign, go to the youngfreealberta.ca website and click on the “Search Archive” tab in the main navigation bar.
Key Questions:
- Will Resource One find a spokester anywhere near as awesome as Young & Free’s Larissa Walkiw?
- Will the credit union give the campaign the necessary offline marketing support it needs?
- Currency Marketing, the agency that created CommonWealth’s wildly popular Young & Free initiative, is franchising the concept. How will this impact them?
Resource One’s announcement also puts to rest a question raised here at The Financial Brand earlier this year about who was behind a logo design contest at 99designs.com. The person that won that contest received $200. (Oddly enough, the contest at 99designs.com inaccurately indicates one of the runner-ups as the winner.)
The logo contest was posted by Resource One’s ad agency. What they, in turn, charged Resource One for this $200 logo remains a question.
Resource One is using the winning design from that contest as its official “My Life, My Money” logo.
Resource One has $265 million in assets and just over 40,000 members.
Previous related stories from The Financial Brand:
- B of A targets college crowd with ‘Morris on Campus’
- Are you ignoring Gen-Y? Parents? Gen-Z?
- “B@%k” is a four-letter word in this promotion
Tags: Common Wealth, credit union, Currency, Gen-Y, Larissa Walkiw, Resource One, Young & Free
August 8th, 2008 at 11:30 am
First off, I just wanted to say that team “Tim and Larissa” and all the staff that make Young and Free possible rock the hizouse. I also think franchising the program can have some great potential. However, my one concern is that Resource One CU needs to make sure they have a killer product to tie in. Young and Free boasted the first free checking account for youth in the region. That’s a good incentive!! Will Resource One be able to match that value proposition??
August 8th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Hi Jonathan,
The press release from Resource One has this to say abou the product mix:
“Communicating via social networking media, MyLifeMyMoney will provide relevant products to give Gen Y’ers the necessary tools (custom accounts, online banking, special loans with lower rates, higher interest rates, etc.) and education to better manage their money. MyLifeMyMoney allows Gen Y’ers to spend their money the way they want to spend it or save their money the way they want to meet their life goals: “It’s your life, you make the call!”
We’ll have to see what “custom accounts,” “special loans” and “better rates” entails when they debut their promo on Wednesday.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:57 am
J.P.
It is going to be hard for any credit union to do any sort of social media experiment on the scale of Y&F without being compared to Y&F. That always happens when you are the first.
I am currently working on 2 separate campaigns that have elements of the Y&F like a spokesperson search (well one has a spokesperson search the other has an actor). But I would never rip a term like “Spokester” - too close to Y&F.
Both campaigns I am working on have online and offline components as well as social media components. I know that they will be compared to Y&F and even to what First Entertainment is doing (If I am lucky).
The same thing happens in design. We all watch MTV and look through magazines to see what design trends are popping up. Hopefully we put our own creative spin on the visuals and dont just completely rip them off - but I have had clients give me pages from magazines and say “Make it look exactly like that”. It makes my skin crawl, but we basically do what we are paid to do. I give my guidance, suggestions, input and all that, but at the en of the day - you try to give the client what they ask for.
We all hope to see success like Y&F. Unfortunately some people will think that making a knockoff will create the same effect. Most of the time they dont realize that the success of those campaign ventures rely on the innovative and creative nature of the people behind them (at the agency and the credit union), and not solely on the marketing gimmicks at play. The agency and the credit union have said that they were 100% behind making this campaign successful and were 100% invested in the concept. You see the same kind of passion at Forum and Verity too.
Knockoffs are never as good or as successful as the originals. That is just the nature of the business. Being first does have its advantages.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I agree.
It’s difficult to be unique in a world full of knock-offs, and imitation is the highest form of flattery. But there’s a fine line between emulating and flat-out ripping off.
It seems this program is line by line a cheap version of the real deal in Canada. Check out http://www.mylifemymoney.org. It’s the microsite mentioned in the above article, (you were right!) that Resource One is currently using to give the Gen Y people all the information about the program.
Nobody has mentioned this tie either, the My Life My Money name is trademarked by Spokane Teachers Credit Union, a credit union in Washington. http://www.stcu.org/
Ah, the beauty of “Google”. Possible legal woes already?
August 9th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Hi Tony,
I understand what you’re saying about any future social media programs being compared to Y&F. You’re right. It’s probably inevitable that people will ask, “Will it be better?” “What new twist is there?” “How will this different than Y&F?” In this case however, there doesn’t seem to be much of a comparison to make.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
1:05 - 1:18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKr95XQc7to&feature=related
August 12th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
[...] first time in the United States, was tempered with the news that another credit union in Texas has copied the Young & Free concept, nearly line for [...]
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It’s like they created a generic version. Why have hamburger when you can have steak?
August 12th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
[...] One Credit Union of Dallas recently launched a campaign it calls MyLifeMyMoney. According to The Financial Brand blog: Contestants will submit a 500-word blog and video online during the first phase of the [...]
August 13th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
How absolutely awful for Resource One! Did anyone check out Larissa’s reply to this post? It’s of her on the news about a YEAR ago where she claims she coined the term “Spokester”.
I give major kudos to Young & Free, what a revolution! Also, I think that at this point it doesn’t matter if Resource One ripped this off or not, perception is 9/10ths reality, and by now, looking at all this bad press they’re getting, they’re going to have a doubly hard time trying to pass off roadkill as an appetizing steak.
Shame on their marketing or advertising agency, or whoever convinced them to use this rip-off. Is everyone over there blind? Do they not have the Internet!?
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