PORTLAND, Ore. - A desire to channel one’s inner rock star helped one credit union here attract a much larger-than-usual crowd to a branch opening.
Would-be Jimmy Hendrix’s and Eric Claptons ranging in age from 6 to 37 turned out for Unitus Community CU’s Guitar Hero tournament, which was open to the public, attracted 60 contestants and 400 consumers to the new branch on a Saturday.
It was the most successful branch opening for the $740-million, seven-branch credit union, explained Laurie Kresl, VP of planning and business development, who added the credit union was looking for a way to stand out in an area of town in which it had not had a presence.
“We had very little name recognition in Tanasbourne,” Kresl said. “We wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the Guitar Hero video game. It worked.” Guitar Hero allows players to test their guitar playing skills and achieve the resulting score.
The CU targeted a “younger” demographic with the contest, but not Gen Y, Kresl pointed out. The average age of contestants was 16. Unitus had recently seen significant growth in members aged 18-24, and wanted to continue the youth trend.
“The average age of our membership is 47,” Kresl said. “So we want to lower that.”
The contest was successful in driving traffic into the Tanasbourne branch, where the event was held. A 50-inch plasma screen was hung inside the CU in an area that resembles “a living room,” according to Kresl. A white board next to the TV tracked contest standings. The winner received an Xbox 360, and second- and third-place prizes of $200 and $100, respectively, were handed out.
“We believe we established a presence in this local market,” said Kresl, adding that this is the first time the CU took this approach. Kresl said the event, themed “Unitus Rocks Tanasbourne,” helped the credit union add 29 new members and $239,000 in deposits in the first three weeks the new branch was open.
The credit union spent $7,500 on the contest. Some of that expense went to “tickets” staff handed out to promote the event.
“The tickets had all of the information about the contest and looked like concert ticket stubs,” Kresl said. “We went to a local shopping district, basketball courts, and Best Buy and handed them out.”
According to Kresl, the credit union is considering running another tournament for its next branch opening in July. But they’ve leaned some lessons.
“I think the tournament would have run a little more smoothly had we thought about the possibility of numerous cancellations,” Kresl said. “We held online registration well before the event and about half of the registrants didn’t show. That left some gaps in the schedule, which made things run a little slowly at the end. Next time we’ll make the contest a little shorter.”
Kresl said walk-ups created an issue at the start. “We had about as many people walk up and register the day of the event as we had cancel. So we really weren’t ready to handle them. Next time we will be.”
