Every week, The Financial Brand shares articles, websites and other links relevant to financial marketers. This week, there were 18 stories from around the web that caught The Financial Brand’s attention. Click on the hotlinked summary to read the full story.
Earlier this August, 154 financial institutions participated in The Financial Brand’s 2010 Online Marketing Study, including 49 retail banks and 93 credit unions. 64 of the participants had $1 billion in assets or more. 66 had less than $500 million in assets. 46% described themselves as “novices” at online marketing, 43% said they were “intermediate” online marketers, and only 8% felt confident enough in their abilities to characterize their organizations as “advanced.” Nearly 4% admitted they don’t do any online marketing at all.
Nearly a quarter of all retail financial institutions said they allocate around 5% of their marketing budgets to online activities. 32% weren’t sure if their organization invests any money in online marketing. 6% knew the total: $0.
22% don’t track or measure their online activities, while only 8% do so all the time.
45% of banks and credit unions don’t have any online marketing staff. Nearly a third have only one full-time employee dedicated to online marketing activities.
46.40% have a Facebook page, 34.60% use Twitter, 24.80% are on YouTube and only 1.3% have a MySpace page. 5% are toying around with Foursquare. 18% of retail financial institutions have a blog.
While most financial institutions embrace email marketing, a surprising 31% don’t.
57% of banks invest in search engine optimization (SEO), while only 36% of credit unions do the same — a difference of 21%. By an even greater margin, banks are much more likely to utilize search engine marketing (SEM): 57% vs. 23%.
Banks are 20% more likely to have microsites, and are 36% more likely to run banner ads than their credit union peers.
Credit unions are less likely to have a mobile phone app. They are, however, more likely to have a blog, an online newsletter and ads in their eStatements.
You can download a raw Excel file with data from the 2010 Online Marketing Study. The file includes three worksheets with comparisons between banks and credit unions and breakdowns by assets. You can perform more granular comparisons with another separate file that includes the individual entries from each study participant.
Please note: If you use any of the data from this study, you must attribute credit to The Financial Brand.
Every week, The Financial Brand shares articles, websites and other links relevant to financial marketers. This week, there were 10 stories from around the web that caught The Financial Brand’s attention. Click on the hotlinked summary to read the full story.
Banks and credit unions have been bombarded by the gospel of online social networking. These financial institutions listen to a nonstop stream of social media gurus espousing the need to “join the conversation,” so they rush out and dutifully launch Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Then what do they hear?
Nothing. No comments. No views. No followers. No fans. No likes.
Cricket… Cricket…
“Why,” they wonder, “doesn’t anyone care about us? Why doesn’t anyone care what we have to say?”
Well for starters, many financial institutions seem to misconstrue cries to “join the conversation” as “jump in and start blabbing.” Maybe no one is listening because financial institutions spend most of their time talking about things that don’t interest people (hint: regurgitated newsletter fare).
Reality Check: People aren’t interested in listening to you talk…about you. If you want to see someone’s eyes light up, ask them questions and encourage them talk about things that interest them — namely themselves, their experiences, their questions and their concerns.
Asking questions is one good way to start a conversation. “What’s important to you?” “What do you think?” “What questions do you have that you would like me to answer?” This is part of the doctrine that helped make Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Among the many principles Carnegie lays out is his book:
Become genuinely interested in other people.
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Talk in the terms of the other man’s interest.
Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.
Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.
Give honest and sincere appreciation.
Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never tell someone they are wrong.
If you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
Begin in a friendly way.
Start with questions the other person will answer yes to.
Let the other person do the talking.
Let the other person feel the idea is his/hers.
Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
Online or off, it’s a lot easier to “listen” and “engage in conversation” when the other person has something to say. If you’re looking for a Twitter or Facebook strategy, or some sort of social media policy, Carnegie’s book is a great place to start. Just be ready to hear both the good and the bad…and respond appropriately.
One Educator of the Year will have their mortgage paid for a full year, plus $5,000 donated to their school for resources and supplies. Three other finalists will each receive $1,500 for themselves and $1,500 for their schools.
The nomination form asks questions about the nominee’s creativity, enthusiasm, teaching methods and overall impact on students. Additionally, the contest calls for at least three letters of recommendation and a portfolio of the teacher’s work and accomplishments in order to complete a nomination.
The nomination period lasts 30 days. Nominations close April 16.
The site invites people to share their thoughts with a built-in comment box at the site’s homepage. There are also links to spread word of the contest through Twitter and Facebook.
A selection committee with chose a pool of semifinalists — called the Circle of Excellence — on May 17. The public can vote for their favorite teacher at the website in the project’s next phase. This Community Choice Winner will also get $1,500, as will their school.
OnPoint’s cash awards and contributions to schools will total nearly $45,000.
The selection committee will be picking the Educator of the Year and three other prize-winning finalists from the Circle of Excellence. An announcement will be made on June 4.
OnPoint, who changed names from Portland Teachers Credit Union in 2006, has the support and cooperation of local school officials. The school district will help facilitate portions of the contest.
OnPoint’s increased involvement in the educational community is sorely needed in Oregon. The state has been deeply impacted by the recession, and programs for kids and education have been affected more than others. Compounding the problem, WaMu’s once active and avid support for educational programs in Oregon vanished when the thrift failed in 2008.
The credit union has also established a media partnership with a local NBC affiliate, KGW Channel 8. Throughout the campaign, KGW-TV will run a series of promos to support the OnPoint Prize contest. The TV station also has an unusual banner ad for the program on its website (take a look).
OnPoint will also post updates of the contest on Facebook and Twitter.
OnPoint’s longstanding agency partner, Weber Marketing Group, developed the concept and website.
OnPoint plans to make the Prize for Excellence an annual event.
OnPoint Community Credit Union was founded by teachers over 78 years ago. The credit union’s unique Homeroom Loan enables teachers to get mortgages with no-down-payments and no mortgage insurance. Today the credit union has over $2.7 billion in assets and more than 200,000 members.
Reviewed and written by Jeff Stephens, CEO/Creative Brand Communications
Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union recently partnered with personal financial management firm Wesabe to offer Addison Avenue Groups, an online initiative hosting a variety of discussions on financial topics where people can answer each other’s questions and offer advice.
Groups cover broad subjects like “Buying a House,” within which are topical discussions such as “Mortgage Payment for Debit Ratio,” and “Buy vs Build.” Discussion is open to both Addison Avenue members and Wesabe.com customers (except for a few specific groups), which greatly expands the number of people holding conversations in the online community.
“We invested a lot of time, energy, and money to launch Addison Avenue Groups,” the credit union said. “You can go join a discussion (or start your own) about any financial issue, topic, or question that comes to mind.”
“You can now leverage the wisdom of thousands, online, any time, for free,” the credit union noted.
A page for each “Group” displays the most recent discussions.
Addison Avenue’s guidelines for its online discussion groups.
“After discovering the richness of personal finance wisdom in Wesabe’s online community, we knew it was essential to provide this experience to our membership,” said Stu Fisher, SVP of eCommerce at Addison Avenue.
Marc Hedlund, CEO of Wesabe, says, “Leveraging the Addison and Wesabe communities, members will have access to thousands of smart advisors to help them reach their financial objectives.”
” Not only does Addison Ave. understand social networking and how to add value to a key demographic, but they took it to a level that makes perfect sense.” — Eric Gagliano, Market Match
Openly displaying member posts and comments on the Addison Avenue website certainly shows a level of confidence few financial institutions have previously shown. It gives the impression that Addison Avenue is transparent, progressive, and receptive to suggestions and criticism. Not very many other financial institutions are willing to take that risk, though notable exceptions include USAA’s Member2Member forums and the First Direct Live microsite.
Key Questions:
Does the online community actually help members become more financially literate?
What qualifies someone to give financial advice?
And who is to say that users don’t also post — either on purpose or inadvertently — harmful recommendations?
Key Fact: Addison Avenue members bank primarily online, with only about 30% ever setting foot in a branch, which presents a unique set of community-building challenges for the credit union.
Addison Avenue Groups is the credit union’s latest online effort in bringing members together. Addison Avenue has pushed to create a sense of community among members through social media and other virtual outlets, including its Addison Avenue Groups, Addison Cafe Blog,Twitter,Facebook and Youtube.
“We tweet, blog, reach out through our online community Groups,” Addison Avenue’s Fisher says. “We do whatever it takes to keep in touch with our members.”
The credit union even hosted a coffee-shop TweetUp, where Addison Avenue members on Twitter could meet and chat in real life.
Wesabe included the Groups functionality as part of a customized version of its Springboard application for banks and credit unions. Wesabe’s Springboard allows financial institutions to integrate Wesabe’s personal financial management (PFM) tools directly into their websites.
Bottom Line:
Addison Avenue Groups brings people — members and prospective members — together in a constructive, value-added and relevant manner. The quality of the peer advice is secondary to the engaged sense of community that members get from the conversations. And as the initiator and facilitator of this community, Addison Avenue scores big with participants.
Overall, the credit union clearly has a better grasp on social media than your average financial institution. A lack of physical interaction has forced the credit union to explore alternative channels for communication and community-building. Addison Avenue tries diligently to create a sense of online community, which is commendable. This initiative differentiates the credit union from most other financial institutions who don’t bother with this sort of thing…if they even know about it.
——————————————————————————————————————————— About the author:Jeff Stephens is founder and CEO of Creative Brand Communications (CBC), a full-service bank and credit union branding and marketing agency. CBC helps financial institutions find their story, tell it, and most importantly, prove it.
Here are some of the major innovations and significant online/technology trends that financial marketers should watch in the coming years. (Please note: This is by no means intended to be a comprehensive or definitive list.)
What do you think will be a major trend shaping financial marketing in 2010 and beyond? Please leave your thoughts and comments below.
1. The Megasite
The once-simple microsites financial institutions made for their marketing campaigns have ballooned into massive undertakings. Look at the monstrous scale of Umpqua’s “Save Hard, Spend Smart” website or GTE Federal Credit Union’s “U-22” site. These are major undertakings with multiple layers and dozens of pages.
Nowadays, creating an immersive and engaging online experience requires a lot more work. Figuring out how to integrate the array of social media platforms — Twitter, YouTube, Facebook — is a struggle.
Megasites will be a continuing trend through 2010 and beyond. Just be sure to create brand/image synergy between your promotional subsite(s) and your primary website.
2. Financial Edutainment
Financial education will have to become a lot more entertaining and interactive in 2010 and beyond. Check out BofA’s “Morris on Campus,” or their comic attempt with “Mo Rocca on Banking,” to get a good idea for how high the bar has been raised.
Many credit unions are using “savings challenges” to stimulate interest in lessons of thrift. Umpqua’s “Save Hard, Spend Smart” initiative has a number of financial education components. ING DIRECT’s “Planet Orange” is another great example. And Nevada State Bank hired the world’s most celebrated conman to create a series of online educational videos about fighting identity theft and financial fraud.
3. New Channels for Customer Service
Live online chat has been around for a few years, but financial institutions are deploying it at a quickened pace. With instant online chat, you can address people’s questions and concerns right at the point-of-sale, transforming an otherwise static, one-directional marketing tool into an interactive sales/service experience. Expect to see a continuing increase in the uptake of live chat.
BofA was the first bank to provide customer service via Twitter. Wells Fargo, Wachovia and others have joined in. Now, BofA is getting serious. They have a whole dedicated Twitter team, and a new fancy CMS tool to manage their Twitter-based customer service interactions.
But you don’t need to be on Twitter to provide next-generation customer support. For example, you can text “unhappy” to the State Bank of India and they guarantee they will respond to your complaint within 48 hours.
4. Online PFM
Few things have made as big a difference to consumers over the last couple years — from a practical perspective — as the introduction of online Personal Financial Management tools. Online PFM is like a more robust, next-gen version of desktop applications like Quicken, enabling consumers to track spending and manage their money. One big feature is that many PFM solutions aggregate information from multiple financial institutions in a single view. Other PFM features can include financial advice, community features, and visualizations.
Companies offering online PFM services like Mint,Geezeo and Jwaala have taken the financial industry by storm. Now, white label players are coming into the market, and some banks are even deploying their own proprietary PFM solutions. Any financial institution that underestimates the significance of the PFM trend is making a big mistake.
5. “We’re Listening”
Financial institutions who believe that their primary purpose on the social web is to listen will solicit feedback — both the good and the bad — from the public, and do so publicly. They are out there on the web saying, “Go ahead and tell us what you think.”
ING DIRECT was probably the first to introduce an API for Twitter with its “Fee Tweeter” application. And Vantage Credit Union’s “Tweet My Money” is a fully-proprietary innovation that allows people to access account information and make transfers via Twitter.
Chase hosted a contest for charitable donations using its own proprietary Facebook app. And SunTrust recently launched its “Swap A Solid” Facebook application enabling people to trade durable goods with one another.
Allowing actual users of your products and services to publicly comment on them at your website is Web 2.0 at its purest: open, honest, transparent and accountable. America First Credit Union was one of the first financial institutions in the country to let people rate and review its products. You can take it a step further and let people ask and answer questions, as USAA has with its “Member 2 Member” forums.
9. Online Contests for Charity
Financial institutions will wake up in 2010 and realize they can be making engaging online promotions out of their charitable donations. Just look at what Servus Credit Union and Wells Fargo have done. None of this was really feasible before social media tools came along. And you don’t need to give away a lot of money, as one credit union proved with its $2,000 scholarship giveaway.
11. Making “Community” the focus of Online Communities
Instead of building self-serving online social media communities, some financial institutions are trying to help improve their real, offline communities. Check out what this bank and these two credit unions did to help their communities during the recession. To see this strategy lived out to its fullest, take a look at the myriad of ways Caja Navarra supports its communities online. This Spanish bank will put most non-profits (and not-for-profit credit unions) to shame.
12. Automatic Savings Plans
BofA was one of the first to introduce automatic savings programs, with its “Keep The Change” project. Then there was Wachovia’s“Way 2 Save.” Citizens Bank recently introduced “GoalTrack Savings,” a goal-based savings account with rewards. Third-party products like Bancvue’s “Kasasa” are integrating automatic savings options. You can even include automatic savings into your auto loans.
A blogger snapped this photo of a “rock” on the teller counters at Union Bank. It turns out the “rock” was made of soft foam. “About as solid as a marshmallow,” the blogger wryly notes.
Allianz – Elevator
An elevator wrapped in graphics that look like a bank vault. The sign inside the elevator reads (translaätion): “Keep your money in a safe place.” Clever out-of-home advertising.
Visa – “Anthem”
Every two years, TV viewers around the world are treated to some of the most spectacular, inspiring ads ever created. The cinematography, the story lines, the editing are all extraordinary. Unfortunately, most of these ads don’t promote the companies who paid millions to produce and air them. They only seem to build the Olympic brand, such this beautiful mintue-long spot for the 2010 Winter Olympics from Visa.
Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the ad that talks about themes like “imagination,” “spirit,” “precision,” “speed,” “grace” and “magic,” concepts that seem markedly unrelated to either Visa or banking. It’s almost like a PSA for the Olympics: “This feel-good moment of unity and celebration is brought to you by…Visa! More People Go With Visa.”
You may prefer watching this kind of spot versus an ad for something like “Head On, apply directly to the forehead,” but you’ll quickly forget it was Visa who made it once you see a dozen other advertisers trot out their similarly commercialized celebrations of Olympic spirit and pride. You can see another gorgeous Visa spot for the Winter Olympics here.
SunTrust – “Swap a Solid” Facebook Application
SunTrust Bank recently launched Swap a Solid, a Facebook application that provides users with a forum for exchanging goods and services with their Facebook friends. At the Facebook app, you can “Request a Solid,” or view “Solid Requests.” The Swap a Solid name harkens back to the bank’s current ad slogan, “Live Solid,” although some people might think it’s disgusting to “swap a solid” with anyone other than their spouse.
Standard Bank – “Mr. HIV”
Standard Chartered, a bank serving Asia, Africa and the Middle East, made a pledge to the Clinton Global Initiative to educate one million people about the prevention and spread of HIV & AIDS by 2010. To achieve this, they commissioned an animated short film that chronicles a “Mr. HIV,” a personified virus looking for a job so he can destroy the human body. The script is entertaining. The CG is comparable to a Pixar production. As far as public health PSAs go, you can’t get much better. You can watch the whole series here.
Deutsche Bank – Greenhouse Gases Widget
Deutsche Bank recently launched a free widgetized version of its “Carbon Counter,” a landmark digital billboard in New York City which displays the running total of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The widget comes as part of the bank’s broader campaign to raise public awareness of climate change and encourage investment. (A widget is a downloadable, stand-alone application that can be embedded into an end-user’s web page or desktop.) It’s very interesting to see a bank commit itself so strongly to one side of a political hot potato.
Innovations FCU – “Jingle Bells Lip Dub”
You’re probably burned out on the holidays, but this video is too good to pass up. It’s a singing, dancing lip-synch of a techno version of “Jingle Bells.” The choreography involves the credit union’s entire staff — some 35+ people — in one, single 3-minute take. It is toe-tapping fun, festive and well-produced, yet not so slick that it feels expensive or pretentious. Hat tip to Christopher Stevenson at CUES who was the first to spot the video, and kudos to agency Raoust+Partners, who reportedly produced it.
Belvoir Credit Union – Brand Image & Identity
When Fort Belvoir Credit Union decided it was time to drop the “Fort” from its name, they turned to Third Degree Advertising for a new brand image and identity that is decidedly unmilitaristic.
Capitec – Simplicity
This minute-long TV spot features CG animation with a narrator in a virtual world who describes a bank that is unbelievably perfect. Quite frankly, it sounds too good to be true. The spot ends with the tagline, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Someone feels they’ve been mistreated by your financial institution. They’re pissed off, so they launch a hard-hitting online vendetta against you, centering around a new blog or website. They pull no punches, bitterly and ferociously ripping into you. They keep pushing your buttons trying to get a response. If/when thtey do get a rise out of you, they push even harder.
This kind of situation has become an increasingly common phenomenon in recent months. Standard Bank in South Africa has been contending with a former customer taking them to task in blog posts and on Twitter since July 2009. The vendetta was launched with this tweeted declaration: “We’re putting Standard Bank in the hot seat, holding them accountable for abusing customers!”
Priority One Credit Union has been under attack from an obsessive blogger since January 2009. This person (possibly a former employee) has written some 90 blog posts. That’s an average of one every four days. Some are over 2,000 words long.
Then there’s Navy FCU. Someone name “Chris” claiming to be “a happy and loyal member” before “things changed” has been hammering away on the world’s biggest credit union with his blog, navyfcusucks.com, and a Twitter account, @NavyFCUSucks.
NAVY FCU SUCKS
A blog (left) with a number of articles critical of Navy FCU bears the slogan, “Membership Counts (For Squat).” At the NavyFCUSucks Twitter stream (right), you can find almost everything negative that everyone on Twitter has said about the credit union.
And just about every major bank in the world has a “[Brand Name] Bank Sucks” fan page on Facebook. Just take a look for yourself.
Defensive Cybersquatting Doesn’t Work
These kinds of nightmare scenarios make financial institutions wonder what they can do. “Can we prevent this kind of online vendetta by cybersquatting [ourbank]sucks.com?”
No. Here’s why.
For starters, it’s impossible from a practical perspective. A scorned customer/member/former employee will be able to find some available combination of derisive terms for their blog’s URL. There’s yourbanksucks.com, yourbank-sucks.com, your-bank-sucks.com, boycott-your-bank.com, etc. There is an infinite array of options one can come up with that require only a juvenile level of creativity.
Someone can always launch a blog at a free, third-party service like Blogspot or Wordpress, using URLs like yourbanksucks.blogspot.com oryourbanksucks.wordpress.com. This is a much more likely threat, because not everyone is willing to pony up the money to pay for a domain name and hosted internet server (around $100 per year).
The problem compounds exponentially when you start looking at all the social media platforms one would have to cover: Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc. It’s simply too tedious and time-consuming to run around the web cybersquatting all these names that might possibly be used against you in a future attack.
Key Question: What will people think when they perform a search at their favorite social media sites and see all these harsh and negative names?
This is precisely what concerns Jason Kincy, VP/Alternative Delivery Manager for Arvest Bank. “I don’t like squatting and allowing customers to view them in searching for your company,” he says.
Reality Check: You can’t secure all the possible combinations and cybersquat your way out of an online attack. Trying to reserve even the most basic, obvious combinations would be extremely tedious. There are just too many. You can’t cover them all.
As Brent Dixon with Filene, a credit union think tank, puts it, “That feels like an exhausting, neurotic thing for a person to do.”
Indeed, no one bent on revenge is likely to give up simply because their first choice for a URL — [yourbank]sucks.com — isn’t available.
“I would think someone motivated enough to start one of these is motivated enough to find a name you haven’t squatted,” adds Mark McSpadden, an expert in online financial technologies.
The truth is, there is no fool-proof defensive countermeasure that will thwart possible online attacks. You can provide the greatest customer service on earth, and you may still be unfortunate enough to run into someone who has the time and energy to point out your failings (real or perceived).
Reality Check: If someone wants to initiate a vendetta bashing your financial institution, there’s really nothing you can do to stop them. Someone w/a score to settle will find a way to launch their attack.
So What Can We Do?
Most experts on social media agree that you should try to reconcile differences by engaging with the upset blogger.
“Learn to be better at dealing with conflict, rather than earmuffing it and hoping ignorance will work,” advises Filene’s Dixon.
William Azaroff, head of online strategy for VanCity, a large Canadian credit union, has a number of good tips for how to best tackle angry bloggers. Read his excellent blog post about monitoring your online brand health, then check out this companion presentation, “Responding to Bloggers”:
One thing to consider is to simply invite the begrudged person to have a cup of coffee. If they are a rational, reasonable person with a real grievance, you can give it a try. If your only publicly published response on the internet is an invitation to “sit down and talk,” it will at least look like you’re trying to take the high road and make amends, even if your offer is rejected.
Remember, you’re dealing with people’s emotions. These people feel you hurt them. They probably feel unimportant and disrespected, as if they weren’t worth your time. Think about how you can address these feelings, and not just resolving the financial transaction that triggered their ire.
The good news is that if you can resolve the issue, there’s a very good chance that this person will flip from a “brand detractor” and turn into a “brand advocate.” Many times, people judge brands (just like people) by how they perform during their darkest moments. The same person who was once willing to rant about your ills yesterday may also be the same person to extol your virtues tomorrow.
As difficult as it may seem to find anything positive in these situations, just keep in mind that you may be able to turn a sour lemon into some great PR/word-of-mouth lemonade.
Reality Check: Sometimes, there is simply no way you can win.
Some people are bullies, where anything you say can (and will) be used against you. Others are plain old nutjobs, and there is nothing you can do to stop them. Don’t bother engaging with people who are downright nasty or suffer from psychosis. It’s a waste of energy.
Once a blogger has moved past their own complaint and begins adopting/echoing the grievances of others, or looks for new things to bitch about, their vendetta has taken on a life of its own and your opportunity to reach-out has probably vanished. In such cases, it may be best to just wait it out, and hopefully the blogger will someday give up or go away.
Whenever someone launches an online attack against your financial institution, you should always consider talking to your lawyers. Seek their counsel and keep them informed. If the blogger ever crosses the line with libelous comments, don’t be afraid to slap a lawsuit on them. It’s your legal right to defend your reputation when people lie about you.
The Financial Brand has learned of at least one situation where lawyers were called in after months of abuse from the virtual pen of a jilted former employee. The financial institution’s lawyers fired off a letter full of scary legal terms and the website was turned off — immediately. Sometimes, “engagement,” “dialogue” and “joining the conversation” aren’t the best ways to deal with big brand problems on the social web.
There is little doubt that social media is here to stay. As the list of organizations jumping on the bandwagon grows every second, the same business questions continue to arise:
How do we execute it effectively?
How do we justify the time and personnel expense (ROI)?
How do we use it to support other initiatives?
To answer these questions, Callahan & Associates Internet Strategy Consortium conducted a social media survey involving over 11,000 credit union members.
Key Fact: This is the most comprehensive social media study ever conducted in the credit union industry.
The study measured members’ use of social media, including visited sites and online activities, communication preferences and desired topics on social media sites. Among the findings:
More than 82% of credit union members ages 18-60+ use Facebook.
About half of all members surveyed said they would read a credit union’s Facebook page periodically.
Among credit unions with a Facebook presence, only 5-16% of their members were aware their credit union had a fan page. Most members reported learning of Facebook pages through credit union websites.
Of Twitter users, 34% use it to follow companies with which they do business.
Twitter’s overall familiarity among members was 14%, but only 2-7% reported being “very familiar” with the service.
Members using Twitter expect their credit union to provide information such as fraud alerts (71%), special offers (60%), financial tips (58%), and rate specials (57%).
Nine-in-ten online members are interested in receiving email from their credit union.
The Callahan & Associate study including 11,000 credit union members revealed interesting differences between age groups and usage of certain social media channels.
The Financial Brand sat down with Shari Storm, VP/CMO of Verity Credit Union, and Terrell Meek, Verity’s Marketing Manager, to talk about their latest online social media project, Verity Mom. Verity Credit Union is no stranger to the Web 2.0 world. They are credited with being the first credit union in the U.S. to launch a blog, “Verity Voices.”
Verity Mom puts a mommy twist on the internationally acclaimed Young & Free “challenge marketing” promotion from Currency Marketing. The basic formula in this strategy starts with a huge marketing push to recruit a spokesperson (or “spokester”) who will blog on behalf of the financial institution. An online contest determines the winner of this paid, part-time position. Then over the course of a year, the spokesperson uses online social networking services like blogs, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to share various perspectives about personal finance issues and the financial institution they represent.
In all the previous deployments of Young & Free, the recruited blogger has been a member of Gen-Y. The use of a mommy blogger represents the first significant variation of Young & Free.
We wanted to launch a program that increases awareness among moms. We also want to use Verity Mom as a vehicle to increase our new member numbers within our community. The account we want to introduce to this market is our Cartwheel Checking (a Rewards Checking product), designed with busy moms in mind.
Verity is phasing out Velocity Checking account, its original high-interest checking option, and is replacing it with Cartwheel Checking, which reduces the maximum balance earning a higher interest rate to $10,000. You can keep as much money as you want in Cartwheel, but only the fist $10,000 get paid the bonus rate. The interest rates on both accounts are the same.
Why moms?
Mothers control 83% of all household spending. Ironically, they have largely been overlooked in the financial industry.
Not only are mothers a powerful market in their own right, they also have tremendous influence on where their kids do their banking. Every financial institution struggles with how to attract younger members. We want to bring in more families into our credit union.
Like most other credit unions, our membership continues to age and we need a blend of members in different stages of their lives in order to balance loan and deposit growth.
Mothers are incredible sources of referrals. We love the quote, “If you can please a mom, you can please anyone.” We want to design products and services that please moms and, in turn, have them tell their networks about us.
Why a blog?
We had been watching the amazing things that Currency Marketing had been doing with Young & Free and we wanted to try something like that. When our board decided that resources were going to be spent reaching the mom market, we approached Tim and his team and asked if we could do a Young & Free, but with moms. And so Verity Mom was born.
How did you choose Rosemary Garner as your mommy blogger?
“Moms matter!
Verity Credit Union
wants to hear what
moms have to say,
and I’m the voice
to make that happen.” – Rosemary Garner,
2010 Verity Mom
We used LinkedIn and Craigslist to let people know about the recruitment phase of the project. Rosemary Garner was one of the 34 applicants who submitted an online application — a 60 second video and blog post — in our 2010 Verity Mom contest. Rosemary emerged from our internal judging as one of the top three candidates. After that, she was selected based on votes from website visitors. Thousands of votes were cast.
[Note: For winning the competition and becoming the 2010 Verity Mom, Rosemary gets a $20,000 annual salary, a 13" Apple MacBook Pro notebook computer and a Flip Mino HD video camera.]
While Rosemary is a great writer, her talents and experience lie in video. She has been a documentary producer for many years. Video will be the most powerful component of Verity Mom.
Rosemary posted her first video this week. She actually interviewed the lead singer of The Presidents of the United States of America, who is doing a side project on a CD for kids. The video is great and he gave a shout out to Verity. It was really fun.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
The Twitter account (left) has 120 followers, and the Facebook page (right) has 23 fans. The five videos uploaded to the YouTube account (below) have been collectively viewed over 2,100 times.
What are you doing to promote the initiative offline?
While we were running the contest, we placed several ads in local newspapers. We also had branch signage and floor decals. We also handed out temporary tattoos all over the place. We were fortunate to get some traditional PR as well. There were a few stories written about the contest in local newspapers, and Rosemary will be attending some community events… perhaps making a TV appearance or two.
TEMPORARY PROMOTIONAL TATTOOS
How are you measuring success? What metrics are you using?
We are looking at new member numbers in our communities as the measure of success.
How long do you plan to run the Mommy blog?
Rosemary will be our Verity Mom spokesperson for one year. Beyond that, we are taking a wait and see approach.
Shari, can you tell us a little bit about new book, “Motherhood is the New MBA.”
Thank you for asking. I recently published a book through St. Martin’s Press on how the skills you use as a parent are the same skills you need to manage people. It’s gotten some good press. It’s been in Costco Connection, HybridMom, Body & Soul, BusinessWeek online as well as Martha Stewart’s radio program, to name a few.
It has been interesting to have this hobby of writing a book for the mom market and having that overlap so much with what we are doing at my credit union.
The Cash In With Your Camcorder contest invited residents of Alberta, Canada, between the ages of 18-25 to create 30-second video commercials about “why the Young & Free Chequing Account rocks.” Prizes included a $2,000 grand prize, and a $1,000 second place prize.
“You could buy an airport for that,” observes 2009 Young & Free spokesperson Myles Petermen says. “It would be made of Legos, but it would be an airport.”
In addition to getting cash, winners may also find their videos used in future advertising.
CONTEST ENTRY – “FINANCIAL IDOL”
This submission comes from the previous Young & Free spokester, Larissa Walkiw. The singing trio in this video uses the same stick-figure style as the video that catapulted Ms. Walkiw to international credit union fame back in 2008. With over 75,000 views, Larissa’s “The Difference Between Banks & Credit Unions” is the most-watched YouTube video in the credit union industry…worldwide. If you’re one of the few that hasn’t seen it, you should take a look.
Launched in late October, participants have been submitting their home-made commercials to the credit union. The credit union provided a “starter kit” of standard elements and other video graphics (such as logos) to help contestants with their entries.
People were able to vote for their favorite submissions on the Young & Free Alberta site through the month of November. Winners will be announced on Friday, December 4.
YOUNG & FREE ALBERTA MICROSITE
Shown here in the voting phase of the contest.
The Young & Free Chequing Account, available to the 17-25 year-old Alberta crowd, features free and unlimited withdrawals from network ATMs, account transfers, point-of-sale transactions, cheques, bill payments, and more. It is positioned as a simple and easy-to-understand product for those just starting to manage their own finances. The product is unique among Canadian financial institutions who seldom offer free chequing accounts.
There is an online application for the Young & Free Chequing Account integrated directly into the the credit union’s microsite that is so fantastically simple, you’ll have to see it to believe it.
Analysis
The primary benefit of the campaign for Servus Credit Union is the super cheap marketing they get for their youth account. Giving away $3,000 in prize money is much more cost-effective than having a professional commercial made.
The secondary benefit is increased website traffic and word of mouth, since contenders will be pushing all of their friends to visit the Young & Free Alberta site and vote. It’s highly a engaging promotion, regardless of the number of submissions.
Contestants are in it primarily for the cash prize and the shot at getting their creative work used in real advertising. For former spokester Larissa, who is currently pursuing a degree in film, having her ad used by a company for commercial purposes would look good on her resume.
Key Takeaways:
If you’re going to hold a “make-your-own-TV-commercial contest,” there are a few things you should learn from the Cash In With Your Camcorder promo:
Consider defining the specific focus of the commercial, as Servus did when they asked contestants to concentrate on the credit union’s unique chequing product. If you don’t provide a range, then you better be prepared to receive entries encompassing the full spectrum of possibilities — loans, savings, checking, brand… who knows?
Provide your logo, slogan, colors and other creative resources to assist entrants with their submissions. This also helps create a standardized framework or “visual vocabulary” for entries.
Never promise the winning video will run on TV. With any kind of online vote, you can never be sure of the turnout, so don’t obligate yourself to publicly running a commercial that would make you (and your CEO) uncomfortable. You can entice contestants with the mere possibility that — if their submission is appropriate — it may actually air.
Bottom Line: All in all, Cash In With Your Camcorder is one of those smart contests where the winners benefit, but the credit union gains even more.
——————————————————————————————————————————— About the author:Jeff Stephens is founder and CEO of Creative Brand Communications (CBC), a full-service bank and credit union branding and marketing agency. CBC helps financial institutions find their story, tell it, and most importantly, prove it.
Despite having a branch near Binghamton University, home to over 14,000 students,Visions Federal Credit Union struggled attracting young adults. Over the past few months, the credit union has tried to fix that with its Vision FCU Rocks program. The initiative involves a number of traditional- and non-traditional marketing tactics designed to raise their profile in the student community.
Coinciding with the start of fall term, Visions launched a youth-oriented microsite at VISIONSfcuROCKS.org. The site is geared towards students, taking the unusual approach of promoting financial products at two specific age segments:
For ages 13-17, the credit union offers Smart Start Loans (to $350), computer loans, auto loans and Youth Visa Credit Cards.
For ages 18-25, Visions offers auto loans, computers loans, no-fee Mastercards, Student Visa cards and student loans.
Key Question: Why doesn’t Visions promote any checking, savings or other DDAs to either group? Why is it all about loans?
The microsite streams contemporary music tracks while visitors can learn more about the credit union’s various promotions, such as its “BFF Photo Contest.” The current promotion on the VISIONSfcuROCKS.org website invites participants to rewrite the lyrics to “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS LYRICS CONTEST
“We’re asking you to come up with some new lyrics to this old song, ones that reflect the things that you really want! Be creative, be cute, and be crazy!”
On the surface, the microsite looks good, but a little digging reveals that it isn’t very robust. Over half of the links open to pages on the main Visions site, which is visually very different. It would be better to have all secondary pages on VISIONSfcuROCKS.org integrated into the microsite to create a more consistent and cohesive online experience.
Social Networking with Gen-Y
“Gen Y is important
to Visions Federal
Credit Union. Visions
offers Gen Y Initiatives.” – Visions FCU website
As part of its effort to reach Gen-Y, the credit union also created a Facebook page (386 fans) and Twitter stream (182 followers). “These social networking sites are changing the way that our Gen-Y members are doing business,” the credit union says. “Visions has decided to utilize them as a way to communicate with this growing part of our membership.”
You can read the credit union’s entire Gen-Y strategy on the Visions website, where they discuss “social networking,” “financial literacy” and why “Gen-Y is important to Visions.”
A “Gen-Y Friendly Branch”
Visions also expanded with a new branch situated adjacent to University Plaza, an off-campus apartment complex for Binghamton students. The branch interior boasts a contemporary, colorful design, featuring a music café with headsets that hang from the ceiling, free WiFi, bean bag chairs, four full-service ATMs, a community bulletin board and large flat screen TVs broadcasting sports, news, and credit union marketing messages.
CONCEPTUAL RENDERINGS OF THE ‘GEN-Y FRIENDLY’ BRANCH
Visions promoted the new branch on the university’s radio station, distributed invitations in student orientation bags and mailboxes, and even printed custom t-shirts. Back in September, the credit union held a Guitar Hero Tournament at the branch to welcome back Binghamton University students returning for the new semester.
The credit union also partnered with Musicstream LIVE, a service that promotes financial literacy to young adults through live music, to hold a pair of concerts. Concerts held at the university and a local high school drew a combined total of over 1,500 students. Visions emceed the events, and hosted a booth where students could enter to win prizes and get more information about the credit union.
“This program creates awareness in the community that our credit union cares about the future of our young adults and does it in a non-traditional way,” said Jayne Searles, AVP Marketing & Business Development. “Feedback from administrators at both schools was fabulous. They thought it was a unique way to get the message out and a great way to start the school year off for their students.”
BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY FEST 2009
Videos of the Visions-sponsored concerts show the credit union talking a lot about themselves and financial topics. With a strong brand presence at the event (including banners and booths with prize drawings), a one-sentence introduction might have sufficed.
Visions FCU, has over $2 billion in assets and more than 122,000 members, with 23 branches throughout Central New York and Northern Pennsylvania.
——————————————————————————————————————————— About the author:Jeff Stephens is founder and CEO of Creative Brand Communications (CBC), a full-service bank and credit union branding and marketing agency. CBC helps financial institutions find their story, tell it, and most importantly, prove it.
Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union
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