Thanks for the follow up info. Now that you mentioned the Hula Bowl, I do recall the event. I believe a local credit union that has Ohio State University in their field of membership actually sponsored some of the individual OSU players that played in the game.

It’s too bad it was a one and done event.

Also, see page 7 of this HI League publication from that time, talking about local CU opportunities to get involved. (http://www.hcul.org/email/leaguenews/0105ln.pdf).

If they did, it would give the industry some much needed national exposure (I’m still amazed at how many people still don’t really know what a credit union is). Individual credit unions could buy ads in their market during the game (or event) to piggy back on the exposure.

Just watched the national championship game on Thursday, and have no clue if it even had a sponsor.

Yet I know the name of the sponsor of the Poinesettia Bowl, and am reading about it now. It is being discussed in the world of financial marketing. This is not an institution being questioned about capitalization as many are, and there is no wrong-doing associated with it. What can be bad about this publicity? The awkward name of a football game?

I usually argue that there is no bad publicity. Sometimes it takes some digging in to stand a chance with that argument. Not this time. Sure seems like a successful name to me.

That’s six bowl games sponsored by financial institutions, or 17% of the 35 games in the schedule, which is a generally representative percentage for most sports industry sponsorships (accept maybe golf, which draws an extremely high number of bank sponsors).

For one, I really don’t think the name is silly to the point it deserves such harsh criticism. Outside of the main 5 bowls (Nat’l Title, Orange, Sugar, Feista, and Rose), the rest are pretty much irrelevant so who cares what the names are at that point. I’m sure they don’t want to go with SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl – there’s even less brand recognition at that point.

And I’ll add – as someone in the financial industry, I actually watch this game each year since it’s the only FI-sponsored bowl game. I think it’s pretty cool.

For a bowl game at this level (unranked teams w/ barely winning records) there are really only 3 audiences that matter: 1 & 2) The teams that play and their fans; and 3) The city where the bowl is played. I’ll give you 4 if you want to count the sports bar crowd who will watch any game at any time. Other than that, the rest of the nation really doesn’t care.

For the sponsoring city, these games are huge. As was cited above, the SDCCUPB brings in almost $18 million to the local San Diego economy. That creates a lot of jobs and sustains the economy for a few days. This is SDCCU’s way of giving back to the community. I’m sure they have greater name recognition in San Diego because of this sponsorship. The people of San Diego are not ridiculing the name.

The fact that the people in Peoria and the rest of the country make fun of it is irrelevant. They are not the target for this sponsorship. Why are the people at home watching the commercials anyway? Isn’t that when you’re supposed to get another beer or go to the bathroom?

I say, “Way to go San Diego County Credit Union. Way to make a difference in your community!”