LIMA, Ohio -
In February, the junior-year Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) class from Lima Senior High Performance Based School approached Superior FCU, wanting to do a marketing project on SFCU.
“I was talking to our CEO and he said ‘Wouldn’t it be neat to give them a budget and have them do a campaign for us?’” said Kurt Neeper, SFCU’s marketing director.
The students were divided into five teams of four–all competing to create a marketing campaign for the CU.
“Each team was asked to work within a $10,000 budget,” Neeper said. “I gave them my contact info for my ad reps. The five groups met with them after school at different times. The ad reps were instructed to give them as hard of a time as possible.”
Neeper also met with the students weekly for six weeks, during class. At the end of the six weeks, the teens dressed in business attire and presented their ideas to the credit union in an elaborate PowerPoint presentation.
“They actually came up with ideas that never occurred to us,” Neeper said. “The teacher graded their papers. We graded their presentation. The project made up most of their grade for the spring quarter. For whichever groups got their budget selected, I retained creative control over advertising, but whatever they said, we bought.”
The campaign, aimed at attracting younger members to join Superior FCU, was the first time the credit union had a campaign for teens, by teens, Neeper said. The campaign focused on SFCU’s Ychecking–the Y standing for youth or Gen Y, Neeper said. The CU also offers an “ichecking account,” which is a copyrighted name–taken after the popular iPod.
“It was really neat to have them do it,” he said. “I’ve been here for three years and this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done. They did come up with something that we never thought of. The No. 1 issue to them was they wanted to make sure they could have an account that a parent wasn’t on.”
The marketing campaign included a myspace page, which has since been created–www.my-space.com/superiorfcu–and a TV spot. Anyone who becomes a “friend” of the CU via myspace receives a free movie pass. The TV ad created by the students can also be viewed on myspace.
SFCU was a local sponsor of the popular reality show “American Idol,” and on the local network’s affiliate, the commercial was shown during the first 20 seconds of the show’s season finale. There were six different commercials made, and they aired from May to September.
“My ad reps had a really fun time with it,” Neeper said. “Although I was able to better negotiate a price, in the end I believe Superior actually spent between $8,000 to $9,000 on the campaign.
Neeper wrote the commercials, and the students were the talent in all of them. The campaign brought 150 new accounts to the credit union. “We got a lot of new members,” he said. “And parents aren’t on the accounts.”
Before being able to open the account, the teen must take a test, which can be viewed at www.superiorfcu.com/ychecking.htm.
Y Checking is marketed as offering teens the opportunity to establish credit in their names and manage their personal finances on their own as they prepare to move on to college in the near future.
Each checking account includes: no minimum balance, no monthly fees, a free ATM/debit card, free online banking and billpay, a free box of checks.
FOR MORE DETAILS
www.superiorfcu.com
www.myspace.com/superiorfcu
