The Amazing Money Maze

With economic upheaval on Wall Street, many Americans are looking for answers on a wide range of financial matters. O Bee Credit Union is telling people to “Get lost!” Literally. In a maze.

O Bee Credit Union has partnered with a local newspaper and the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions to create one of the most original, most creative and most engaging financial-education promotions ever attempted.

The credit union’s name, “O BEE,” is the centerpiece of a massive, 6-acre maze made from corn. They call it “The Amazing Money Maze.”

The “Amazing Money Maze” from O Bee Credit Union. Look closely. There are two bridges.

There are two separate corn mazes, a 1.2-mile maze and a 1.8-mile maze. In each maze there are six checkpoints. As participants work their way through one of two mazes, they try to answer questions at different checkpoints about savings, budgeting, investing, debt, credit, identity theft, retirement, college, insurance, credit score, checking/debit and housing. Each checkpoint has a question for adults, teens and children.

After reviewing the questions and answers, participants get their checkpoint card punched to enter to win a weekly drawing for movie tickets, iPods, savings bonds, piggybanks, bags of shredded money, museum prizes, martial arts lessons, dance lessons and other stuff kids dig.

The maze is created by the hyper-imaginative folks at the Rutledge Corn Maze. In previous years, the farm’s mazes have been more conventional in their design, but still cool nonetheless.

Admission is $7. The maze is currently “haunted” for the Halloween season. Oooooh spooky!

This multi-way co-promotion is also a fund-raiser for programs that help promote financial education throughout the credit union’s communities.

If you want to see more, check out the website they’ve got set-up at amazingmoneymaze.com.

O Bee: One A Mazing Brand

An incredibly engaging financial education promo isn’t the only thing the O Bee brand has to be proud of. For instance, the “O Bee” name name is great.

For starters, it’s highly unusual, which not only helps the credit union get noticed and stand out, it allows them to have the ultra-simple web address obee.com. But the name makes sense too. You see, it’s the phonetic spelling of “O.B.,” short for “Olympia Brewing.” The credit union, the 99th ever started in the country, was originally founded in 1955 to serve the employees of Olympia Brewing.

The ‘O Bee’ name, logo and slogan all work together
to help create a rich and interesting brand story.

The credit union’s slogan, “Refreshingly Familiar,” is refreshingly unique for the financial industry. The slogan says the credit union is a comfortable place to do business, while simultaneously suggesting they have a personality and approach unlike “those other guys.”

For cutting through the clutter by carving their unique name into a cornfield, O Bee is getting a Breakthrough Brand Award from The Financial Brand.

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