For the grand opening of three new in-store branches, OnPoint Community Credit Union held a supermarket sweepstakes. One person at each location won a 3-minute free-for-all, grabbing everything they could fit into a shopping cart.

One of the three sweepstakes winners filled his cart with $2,359, the biggest haul of the day. OnPoint matched the total in grocery giveaways, $5,769, with a donation to a local food bank.

“On your mark…set…go!”

A mostly-meat strategy landed this guy $2,359 in free groceries.

The promo was the brainchild of the folks over at Weber Marketing Group.

SharePlus Bank in Plano, Texas just celebrated its 50th anniversary with a $50,000 promotion that netted 500 new customers and generated over $5 million in new deposits.

Note: The grand prize cost the bank an average of $100 per new customer.

The 1950s-themed promotion which ran during August, included a promotional direct mail piece with a unique prize code. Recipients were invited to play for the $50,000 prize at a special website, shareplus50thanniversary.com.

Both the website and the grand prize giveaway were hosted by SCA, a third-party promotional management company. One of the firm’s specialties is a turn-key “prize code” promotion that can be easily “re-skinned” with your brand.

SharePlus invited the community to visit their local branch and register for FREE gas cards and vacation packages.

The promotional campaign included direct mail, web ads, newspaper print ads, and in-branch activities. A decorating contest had team members outfitting their branches in a 1950s theme.

To launch its new cash-based rewards program, Zions Bank created an offbeat microsite, Cash Back Boulevard, built around a challenging online game.

Putting the total cash rewards on a live meter on the site is brilliant.
It adds credibility to the abstract and indirect concept of a rewards program.
As of this writing, the meter read $2.14 million.

The game is original and fairly complex as compared to other games developed by financial institutions. They give you a “shopping list” of items you’ve got to locate in a specified amount of time. You must find the items by exploring stores within a virtual world.

You can choose from 6 different characters (avatars). If you’re any good, you can beat all three levels. (Warning: You only get 40 seconds. And it’s hard.)

This is the screen you see when the game starts.
You click on the various stores around the virtual town and
look inside to find items on your “shopping list.”

Screen shots from inside the virtual stores.
When you spot an item on your “shopping list,” you click on it and move on.

It looks like those who finished the game were eligible for a lot of pretty good prizes, but there doesn’t seem to be any information available on that component of the promotion (perhaps because the promo has ended).

Reality Check: No matter how cool you think your online game is, most people won’t care. But when you give people actual prizes, you’re giving them a real reason to go to your microsite and play your online game. It also makes marketing the site (that, in turn, should be promoting your product or service) easier and more effective.

The game requires you enter a ZIP code to play, but Zions pre-populates the game with a valid ZIP code, so you don’t have to go Google a ZIP code in their service area just to play. It’s a little detail, but it shows how thorough they were with their UI and design.

Branding the rewards program with Zions’ own, unique name, Cash Back Boulevard, is smart. As a financial marketer, you aren’t doing yourself any favors by trying to differentiate with a rewards program that looks and sounds like everyone else’s: RewardsPlus, Choice Rewards, etc. Plus, using an original name makes it easier to find a URL you’ll like. In this case, www.cashbackboulevard.com works well.

Bottom Line
In ABA’s Bank Marketing magazine, Zions Bank claims the campaign generated the following results:

• 9,000 registrants*
• 248,000 contest entries*
• 70% increase in website logins
• 27% increase in new accounts
• 25% increase in existing card usage

* Presumably people who finished the game.

This creative idea comes to us from Prospera Credit Union in B.C., Canada. The credit union mailed out branded gel packs bearing the message, “Paying taxes is a big headache. That’s why we’re freezing them for 10 years. Introducing the Equity Share Offering from Prospera. Freeze and apply for immediate tax relief.”

Print materials explaining the investment opportunity along with a customized letter were sent in Mylar envelopes with each gel pack. The transparent Mylar envelopes allowed recipients to see the gel pack inside.

Prospera mailed nearly 4,500 packages to a pre-qualified list culled from the credit union’s 60,000 members. Each recipient received a follow-up phone call from Prospera.

Bottom Line: The total cost for the promotion was $42,475, with an ROI that bettered returns on two previous, more-conventional campaigns by 143%.

Tip of the Hat: Thanks to JP Jones for the find, and to Deliver Magazine for their article about it.

A big, inflatable NFL jersey…that is.

BofA used an old standby — the stamina contest — in its promo for this year’s NFL kickoff. No fancy Web 2.0-style microsite. No online social media component. Nope. Their Now Prove It Challenge tested fans’ limits as they attempted to outlast one another by continuously touching a giant 20-foot inflatable team jersey. The last fan standing won a pair of tickets to every 2008 regular season home game of their favorite team.

The Now Prove It challenge took place in the hometowns of the Carolina Panthers, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and Washington Redskins. All four teams are sponsored by BofA.

The contest in Washington, D.C., started at noon on a Wednesday and ended 19 hours later.

As the Official Bank of the NFL since 2007, Bank of America provides NFL-themed personal banking products nationwide, including credit cards with the logos of each of the 32 NFL teams.

Key Takeaway: This kind of promotion can be deployed by any sized financial institution anytime. The thing people keep their hands on doesn’t need to be a jersey (how about a Prius?). And you don’t have to give away season tickets (how about a Prius?).

Ten thousand people took Wells Fargo up on its latest promotion, Someday Stories. The promotion had people submit a 250-word story about how they’d use $100,000 to fulfill a dream. Five finalists have already won $10,000. One of them will win an additional $100,000:

• Danny from Provo, Utah wants to become a physical therapist
• Erin from Prescott Valley, Arizona wants to open a used bookstore
• Evelyn from Sharon, Massachusetts wants to help her daughter expand her magazine
• Mary from Rye, Colorado wants to help her mom open a hospice home
• Tiffany from Reno, Nevada wants to become a doctor

You can read each of the five finalists’ stories here.

Local news outlets covered the ceremony as each of these finalists were presented their $10,000 check from Wells Fargo — delivered by stagecoach, of course.

At the Someday Stories microsite, you can vote for your favorite person+cause, but registration is required. You can also invite a friend to vote, and there’s a link to the company’s Facebook page — two small features that, nonetheless, illustrate Wells Fargo online prowess.

Wells Fargo has a YouTube channel, including the video overview of the five finalists (also embedded in the microsite):

This is the second online contest Wells Fargo has done with its partners at Meme Labs. Last fall, the bank had a Center Stage in the Rose Parade video contest. Contestants were required to download a song provided by Wells Fargo, then sing along in their own homemade music video. People voted on their favorite videos, and the winning video aired during the 2008 Rose Bowl.

A bit surprisingly, Wells Fargo is comfortable having its custom URLs reroute to Meme Labs servers. In this latest promotion, wellsfargo.com/somedaystory redirects you to memelabs.com/somedaystories. It’s interesting, especially considering the bank can definitely afford its own servers.

Wells Fargo — that venerable financial institution that uses a 150-year old stagecoach for its logo — has become one of the world’s most savvy online marketers. As Visible Banking noted, Wells Fargo is the…

• First U.S. bank with a blog
• First bank with a student loan blog
• First bank with a business banking blog
• First bank in the world with a Second Life presence
• First bank on MySpace
• First bank with 2, 3, and 4 blogs
• First bank with an avatar persona on MySpace
• First bank with a VP Social Media

The funny thing is, you seldom hear about Wells Fargo’s online successes. For some strange reason, Wells Fargo isn’t often used as a shimmery example in presentations from Web 2.0 koolaid juicers. Maybe it’s because Wells Fargo does just about everything in-house, so there aren’t a dozen vendors trying to claim the fame? Maybe Wells Fargo has no real incentive to toot their own horn on the public speaking circuit? Or maybe this stuff works so well that they’d rather keep it to themselves? Who knows.

Key Question: When will an online social media campaign from Wells Fargo have a direct product-promotion tie-in? Or will they continue to use online social media primarily as a tool for goodwill and educational purposes?

You probably didn’t know this, but this week is National Customer Service Week. In honor of this über-obscure calendar event, Wachovia is throwing a Who Would You Thank promotion.

Here’s how it works. In 250 words or less, you tell Wachovia a unique and compelling story: who would you like to thank and why. If your entry is selected, Wachovia will “help bring your special thank you to life.”

What does that mean? Really, what can you win? Good question… Wachovia doesn’t make it easy to find out. In fact, you have to dig through their rules and regs to figure it out:

• Grand Prize – Wachovia will attempt to create a “thank you” for the individual that the entrant named in their entry, up to a $10,000 limit. (Note: It’s really tough buying gifts for people — especially people you don’t know.)
• 2nd Place Prize - Two winners will get a check for $5,000, ostensibly to create a gift for the person they want to thank.
• 3rd Place Prize – Three winners will each receive a check for $2,500, again, intended for their special someone.
• 4th Place Prize - Ten people get $1,000.

Total value of all prizes: $37,500.00.

Wachovia’s “panel of judges” will select the winners at the end of the month based on (1) uniqueness, (2) the good deeds of the person being thanked, and (3) the overall quality of the essay.

This promo is similar in structure to Wells Fargo’s Someday Stories.

Key Question: Why can’t people read the entries and vote on them?

The unbranded and totally ugly online entry form is hosted by third-party partner, Insight Express. If phishing scammers can make something look branded, anyone can.

Sidebar: If Wachovia entered its own contest, everyone knows who they would thank. Both Wells Fargo and Citi will be on their Christmas list for sure this year.

On Thursday, September 4, an ad from Silver State Bank asked, “Why do so many of Nevada’s strongest businesses trust Silver State Bank?”

The answer? “Security” and “protection.”

The next day, the bank was seized by federal and state regulators.

Apparently people weren’t buying the bank’s “you can trust us” sales pitch. When you lose people’s trust, you lose their deposits. In the two months prior to the bank’s seizure, customers pulled $264 million of the $1.7 billion on deposit at Silver State.

“A run on deposits
is what kills banks.”
— Tim Coffey
VP/Research, FIG Partners

“A run on deposits is what kills banks,” said Tim Coffey, VP/Research for FIG Partners, in an interview in the Las Vegas Review Journal. “It happened that way in the Great Depression, and it’s happening again.”

Reality Check:

• People already don’t trust banks. Most financial institutions are seen as greedy and self-serving.
• Situations like this, where Silver State advertised blatant lies, don’t help financial institutions shake this image or build any credibility
• People’s B.S. detectors trigger alerts whenever they hear someone say “Trust Me.” Images of used-car salesmen go through their minds.

Key Takeaway: It takes more than just words to earn people’s trust. Reminding people that your financial institution is “safe, sound, secure and stable” is an important communications strategy these days. Just remember: Marketing can’t ever create a sense of trust. As with all our relationships, trust is something earned — usually over time.

When Currency Marketing started planning the rollout of TDECU’s Young & Free Texas campaign, the agency’s media team was looking for non-traditional options to reach the 19 to 25 crowd. That’s when they found GoMobile Advertising based in Kent Washington.

The two firms hatched the idea pitting Guitar Hero players against one another in a truck that’s one-part cage-fighting arena, one part human fishtank.

GoMobile, which owns the truck, needed only 10 days to build and wrap the truck with artwork once the concept was approved.

Currency’s Tim McAlpine says the Texas truck from GoMobile is an 8 week campaign. The deal includes production, media, parking licenses, gas and a “brand ambassador” who works events and drives the truck around.

The truck’s features include seven flat panel TVs, an eight speaker surround sound system which blasts a hip playlist, a Guitar Hero competition setup and wireless microphones. GoMobile calls it “a festival on wheels.”

(click to enlarge photos)

When on the road, the truck is a mobile billboard.

Such coolness doesn’t come cheap. When asked what
the GoMobile truck deal cost, Currency would only say
it was “tens of thousands.”

Because GoMobile owns the truck, the license plate is from Washington — unfortunate for a Texas-themed campaign.

The truck will be hitting hot spots in Houston until voting for the spokesperson is over in mid October.

Next week, another vehicle will become active in Alberta for the new Y&F Alberta spokester search.

Key Question: How seriously do you take your event marketing?

Key Takeaways: You need to be making “marketing events” to maximize your event marketing opportunities. Free pens and water bottles don’t cut it. While you don’t need something as expensive as a custom truck, what you do need is an idea of a similar magnitude. “Cutting through the clutter” is just as tough in real life as it is in advertising.

Fifth Third’s “Unlock Your Dreams” campaign, which started yesterday, centers on a scratchcard and a $250,000 sweepstakes. Anyone can enter by stopping at a branch to pick up their game piece, or you also can request game pieces by mail (as is legally required, but who does that?).

In addition to the $250,000 grand prize, the bank is giving away 22 first prizes of $10,000 — one in each of the bank’s regions.

The scratch-off the game pieces reveal one of the following “instant prizes,” most of them contingent on acquiring a new Fifth Third product:

+ One of 42,500 MasterCard gift cards worth $10
+ $50 in a new “Goal Setter” savings account
+ $50 off loan closing costs
+ $50 off mortgage loan app fee
+ 5,000 Bonus Rewards Points with a new Visa credit card
+ 5,300 Bonus Rewards Points with a new home equity line

The value of the campaign’s prizes, including cash and discounts, totals $895,000.

The scratchcards also include a special “code.” To win either of the cash prizes, you have to go to a special microsite for the campaign at www.53unlockyourdreams.com and type in your “code.” But that’s not all you have to type in.

In order to complete your entry at the microsite, you have to give up a lot of personal information — including your name, email, phone number, mailing address and DOB — so the campaign will definitely be a success from an MCIF perspective. Entrants even tell the bank what kind of financial products they might be interested in by checking a lifestyle option like “getting married” or “retiring.”

The magic of the “code”

From a marketing perspective, the “code” is just a ruse to make the scratchcard more exciting. It gives people the impression that their “code” may “be the one” and they “may already be a winner,” giving them more incentive to visit the microsite and surrender their MCIF profile. In reality, the cash prizes will be given away in a conventional drawing, so the “code’s” only real purpose is to validate entries, thereby preventing contestaholics from repeatedly entering. (Fifth Third is limiting the number of entries each person can have at 20.)

Key Takeaway: Scratchcards tickle people’s gambling nerve center — a juicy marketing tactic.

Bottom Line: This well thought-out and fairly straightforward promo should yield an immediate return in the form of new accounts and new relationships. If they maximize their MCIF opportunities, there should be additional ROI streaming in for months to come.

The contest complements Fifth Third’s slogan, “The things we do for dreams,” which the bank launched back in February.

“This year, our ads have touched on dreams of all shapes and sizes, and have celebrated the steps and sacrifices individuals make today to realize their dreams for tomorrow,” said Terry Zink, EVP/Retail for Fifth Third in a press release.

With $115 billion in assets and 1,300 branch locations, Fifth Third is one of the top 20 banks in the U.S. based on assets.

Entering its second year, WaMuL Live!, is a customer-appreciation promotion for all WaMu bank card holders that focuses on music and entertainment perks.

The microsite supporting the effort promises:

• The opportunity to get tickets to the shows you want to se
• Sign up for ticket alerts and be among the first to know when shows go on sale
• Get concert dates
• Concert reviews [Editor's note: there are only four]
• Find out about special event perks

Some of those perks include a special entrance and parking areas at concerts. You can also access the WaMu LIVE! Lounge by simply flashing any WaMu bank card at partner venues:

• WaMu Theater at Qwest Field (Seattle)
• WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden (New York)
• Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles)
• Greek Theatre (Los Angeles)
• Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (Irvine, CA)
• Nikon at Jones Beach Theater (Wantagh, NY

WaMu LIVE! recently announced it was adding exclusive video from popular artists, including interviews and performances. Currently, there’s only one artist available: Shelby Lynne of country music fame.

Key Questions: How many WaMu customers know about this program? And how many of those take advantage of it?

WaMu is expanding marketing efforts for the WaMu LIVE! program this year with radio spots in venue cities, online advertising and a series of advertorials in Rolling Stone highlighting the new artist content available at wamulive.com.

WaMu also plans to incorporate the program into its existing “Whoo hoo!” advertising campaign.

Here’s another creative marketing effort from the folks at Arizona State Credit Union. (If you missed The Financial Brand’s previous coverage, check out their LOL Cats poster here.)

With around $100 in supplies, the credit union made this merchandising display to promote its financing for construction projects:

They also made wood blocks that were displayed on desks of member service reps and teller stations:

“Merchandising is a retailer’s tool. Just visit the grocery store or Macy’s. Even Walgreens does it. You just don’t see it in a financial institution.”
– Paul Stull, SVP/Marketing
Arizona State Credit Union

This campaign ran in branches only. No other media was used to support the promotion.

In an interview with The Financial Brand, Paul Stull, SVP/Marketing for Arizona State CU, said, traditional media has its place, “but doing something simple with big impact has more power with members who are right there in front of your sales team. It starts conversations and drives sales.”

“It was fresh, unique and made our point at a low cost,” he added.

Arizona State Credit Union has $1.1 billion in assets.

Bottom Line: The $5,563 campaign helped the bring in $2.3 million in new loans in four months. That’s a return of over 40,000%.

In recognition of the promotion’s phenomenal results, the Credit Union Executive Society bestowed this year’s GMA Golden Shoestring Award to Arizona State CU.

Key Takeaway: You don’t need big bucks to generate big results when you have a good idea.

In this promotion from Arizona State Credit Union, college students can get a free cheeseburger with a new checking account.

The concept exploits the wildly popular LOL Cats’ signature punchline, “I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER.” (sic)

If you haven’t heard of LOL Cats, go check them out. It’s a series of cat cartoons – many of them are terribly funny – from people from around the world. Each cartoon relies on a photo with a caption personifying cats that be not good with duh Ingleesh.

Key Questions:

• Is a cheeseburger an adequate incentive for a checking account?
• If the cheeseburger is merely a creative hook, will it connect with the target audience (starving college students?) the way the credit union intends?

Key Takeaway: It is possible to build promotions – even build an entire brand image – by exploiting topical issues and pop culture. But how can you control the message?

This morning at 7:00, people in Worcester, Massachusetts, started lining up at a Gulf gas station to fill up for $1.99 per gallon, courtesy of Digital FCU.

The promotion is only running for 6 hours. It ends at 1:00.

DCU says they are running the promotion to help ease the pain at the pump for their community. (Yeah, that, and to reach out to hundred of potential new members.)

There will be a big, shiny halo around DCU for the next few days. Today they are local heroes. Tomorrow, they’ll be the talk of the town.

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Bottom Line: Assuming the gas station can serve around 150 people per hour with each person getting around 10 gallons, the credit union will only have to reimburse the gas station for around 9,000 gallons – around $20,000. And you have to wonder if the gas station isn’t chipping in a little for this tremendous opportunity.

It doesn’t cost a dime to market this, because $1.99 gas sells itself. The credit union will get thousands of dollars in PR coverage. They’ll probably make the news on all 3-4 local TV networks, plus a possible cover story in the local paper.

[UPDATE: The event got tons of media coverage.]

In the meantime, there’s going to be a few hundred hot new member leads. All the credit union needs to do is have a few staff stand around a gas station being nice and answering questions for a few hours. Easy.

The only odd thing is that there’s no mention of the promotion at the DCU website. Unfortunate, considering the spike in traffic they can expect.

Source: WWLP, via Randy Schultz at Weber Marketing Group

Thank UAE’s National Bank of Dubai for this one. They recently wrapped up a promotion: “Win 12 Times Your Salary.”

It’s simple. Transfer your direct deposit to the bank and you’re entered to win a year’s pay.

What a great idea.

“We have exceeded our expectations and have managed to secure a record number of accounts,” said Mr. Jamal Bin Ghalaita, one of the bank’s general managers, about the promotion.

The bank gave away two grand prizes. Why two? Who knows. But look at these winners. They just won as much money as they make in a whole year! Are they pumped or what?!!?

Key Question: Did the bank get enough additional business to justify doubling up the giveaway?

It’s doubtful. One grand prize is probably enough to motivate the type of people who respond to these kinds of promotions.

Apparently, this isn’t the first or last promotion of this kind from the Dubai bank. They had previously held a “Win Your Car Free” auto loan promotion, and they currently have a “Live Free for a Year” loan promotion.

In a recent TV ad contest, 37 entrants produced a 23-second spot telling people why they should join SELCO Community Credit Union. Big cash prizes helped fuel a healthy turnout during a month-long entry period.

Launched back in March, the credit union said spots could be edgy, funny, bold, simple, serious, or anything in between.

And that’s what they got. The final top 10 entries selected by the credit union reflect a range of creative styles. There’s everything from safe and conservative to the slightly bizarre. You can view and vote for them at the credit union’s website.

The top three most popular entries will receive $5,000, $3,500 and $1,000 respectively. Voting ends today.

Three finalists feature kids. Arguably the best is Commercial #7 (video):

The star is a well-cast, charismatic and adorable little girl of uncertain ethnicity (perfect!). The spot’s production is professional, with thoughtful cinematography and great editing — but it’s not too slick. The soundtrack is fresh and easy-going. All in all, good stuff.

In the Credit Union Times, Bonnie Larson, SELCO’s VP of marketing, said “We were so impressed by not only the number of entries and their depth of resourcefulness, but also by the spirit and consideration people invested in their projects.”

With $784 million in assets, 80,000 members and 13 branches, SELCO Community Credit Union has (A) the marketing resources to support such a promotion and, (B) a member base big enough to ensure a decent pool of entries. TV ad contests like this could be a struggle for smaller financial institutions to pull off properly.

The Pros of TV Ad Contests:

• “User-generated” promotions are fun and engaging.
• You’ll enjoy a greater range of creativity as compared to more conventional ad-crafting processes.
• You may be very pleasantly surprised, and end up with a runaway hit like Larissa.

Reality Check: Just because a TV spot is popular and wins a vote in a contest doesn’t mean it’s the right spot to run.

The low production quality of most homemade TV spots doesn’t project a very professional image. While a homemade feeling may be appropriate for some credit unions, this style could reinforce common misconceptions about credit unions — e.g., they are small, limited and not full-service.

Bottom Line:

• Only pursue ad contests if you are comfortable with uncertain outcomes. What if you only get two entries? What if all the entries suck?
• When you give the general public control of your advertising messages, you are handing over a large — and very visible — part of your brand strategy. It’s risky. Be sure your organization is cool with this.

Here’s an interesting idea from — of all places — Azerbaijan, where Unibank is giving away three 1-carat diamonds every month for a year.

Well actually, only for 11 months. The winner of the final drawing in the 12th month (March 2009) will receive three 3-carat diamonds.

Winners are selected in a raffle from bank customers with at least $1,000 in the bank. You get extra entries for each additional $1,000 you have on deposit.

One-carat diamonds are
worth at least $2,500,
and 3-carat diamonds
are worth between
$15,000 and $30,000.
Bluenile.com

Someone might be thinking, “Yeah, okay. Diamonds are fine for women. But what about men? What guy wants to win a diamond?” Answer: The guy who wants to give his wife jewelry but is too lazy (or cheap) to buy it — e.g., most men.

Key Questions:

• What else can be used as promotional incentives instead of the omnipresent iPod?
  Why do financial institutions always give away the same stuff?
• How much new money is Unibank’s diamond campaign bringing in?
  Or is it essentially a “thank you” promotion to existing customers?

You can do this same kind of promotion in the U.S. as long as you allow anyone to enter. It’s generally okay to give customers entries to a raffle-style drawing, as long as the drawing is open to the general public and it doesn’t require any purchase.

Bottom Line: If you’re going to do a giveaway, as least follow in Unibank’s footsteps and pick something unique and differentiated from your competition.

As financial institutions across the country make announcements about their 2008 scholarship initiatives, Tinker Federal Credit Union is taking a unique approach by having an online video contest.

The concept is simple:

1. Think about what money means to you.
2. Show us any way you want in a video you make yourself.
3. Upload your video for your chance to win a $2,000 scholarship.

• Deadline: submitted before March 14
• Voting: March 31
• Winner: Announced April 7th

The concept’s centerpiece is www.whatmoneymeanstome.org, a website designed by Oklahoma City-based Third Degree Advertising. Fortunately, the underlying marketing concept is simple, so the website’s interface can be simple. The site’s overall design is casual and carefree.

The domain name was secured only two weeks ago, meaning this campaign will take less than four months to go from inception to completion. (NOTE: Initially, only the .org domain had been secured, but Tinker elected to obtain the .com domain after a suggestion by The Financial Brand.)

According to this article in the Credit Union Times, Tinker FCU will apparently be utilizing a “panel of judges” in conjunction with online voting. It’s unclear whether these judges will be pre-screening entries to choose which videos will be voted on, or whether they will actually carry some sway over the selection of the final winner. Online votes are frequently abused, so the “judges” may be the credit union’s way of contending with manipulated results.

To promote the contest, Tinker FCU is sending e-mails to 600 college professors and select high school officials across Oklahoma.

Tinker FCU has $1.5 billion in assets and 185,000 members.

Key Questions:

• Will the campaign be adequately promoted through just email?
• Will “indirect marketing” to educators prove successful? Will the people getting emails pass word on to student – the target audience – as the credit union hopes?
• How many entries will Tinker receive?
• Is $2,000 enough to spur significant participation?
• Will the credit union garner extra PR coverage from the campaign?

Bottom Line: As Matt Stratton, SVP marketing, said, “We thought we’d give this a try and see how it goes.”

Coastal Federal Credit Union in North Carolina gave away 1,300 of these fish coin banks back in February 2007. Unfortunately, they have excessive levels of lead paint.

Announcement about the recall here, and a local news story here.

The affected credit union has 163,792 members and assets of $1.7 billion.

Desert Schools FCU launched a new suite of checking products designed to connect with select target audiences, from Gen Y to retiring Baby Boomers. The campaign asks, “What’s your checking style?”

• Desert Connect Checking - “Your First Checking Account” (Teens to mid 20s)
  No minimum balance and a $3 monthly fee.
• Desert Fusion Checking - “Free + Rewards” (20s to early 40s)
  Earn dividends and get ATM fees refunded with no minimum balance and no monthly fee.
• Desert Select Checking - “For the Active Member” (40 to 50s)
  A dividend account with no minimum balance and a $7 monthly fee.
• Desert Skyline Checking - “For members looking for investments and asset protection” (55+)
  A free dividend account with minimum combined balances of $10,000.

Additional coverage in this article.

Reality Check: On the surface, these accounts don’t look radically different from those offered by other financial institutions, and they aren’t necessarily limited to those people within the age ranges suggested by the credit union.

Bottom Line: Any time any credit union can do anything to help differentiate its brand from other financial institutions, it’s a good thing, even if that only means branding your products with their own unique names.

Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union ran this promotion back in 2006.

You can click on the image to enlarge. The copy reads:

IS YOUR BANK MAKING YOU SICK?

INTRODUCING BRIGHTER BANKING

EASTERN FINANCIAL Florida Credit Union
www.youcanjoin.com

Bring UNUSED BAGS to one of our conveniently located branches to Get $425 with these valuable coupons. Ask a member service rep for details or visit ww.youcanjoin.com/offer

• $75 - Get $75 when you open an Eastern Financial checking account with monthly direct deposit of $500 or more.
• $200 - Get a $200 rebate on closing costs when you close on an Eastern Financial first mortgage.
• $150 - Receive a $150 rebate when you finance or refinance your auto or boat directly with Eastern Financial.

Note: The URL that appears on the bag does not go to a custom page related to the campaign. It links to a standard “You Can Join” page at the credit union’s website.

This may mean that the credit union is simply using the URL to track the campaign’s effectiveness. They could count each hit to the site then forward people to the main site.

Bottom Line: Not every CEO has the stomach for a barf bag promotion, but the campaign is clever and will likely be remembered by everyone who sees it. The offers are strong enough. The easily-remembered URL “www.youcanjoin.com” works both as a slogan and a web address (it’s much better than www.effcu.org).

Marketing: Blessington & District CU gives a car away at every annual meeting

Marketing: American Airlines FCU gives away 5 cars in ‘Road to Success’ campaign

Advertising: A regular guy notices and comments on Think Bank’s billboards

Gen-Y: Commonwealth CU picks ‘Young & Free’ blogging contest winner

Branch Retail: SunWest CU gets a Starbucks inside its new branch

Marketing: Financial institutions stepping up ‘green marketing’ efforts

Web 2.0: Fairfax County CU has user-generated TV spot contest

Marketing: Kansas CU celebrates 50 years by giving away 1957 Cadillac

Politics: Assistant AG in Washington says CUs shouldn’t use the B-word

Advertising: Houston CU supports billboard campaign with a microsite

Sponsorships: San Diego Poinsettia Bowl goes into its third year