EAST LANSING, Mich. — With the goal of providing members 10 and older with an interactive, fun way to learn basic money management concepts, Michigan State University FCU teamed up with the university's College of Communication Arts and Sciences Department to develop a new game app, Saving Magic.
"The game is very engaging and fun," said MSU Federal Credit Union VP-Corporate Relations Sarah Bohan. "Even as an adult, you find yourself excited to keep playing and wanting to advance within the game."
While MSUFCU serves approximately 180,000 members in 13 locations, capturing the youth member segment has been a longstanding goal. This gave rise to a progressive, creative relationship with the university.
"Our goal with the Saving Magic app was to provide our youth members with an interactive and fun way to learn basic money management concepts, such as saving money, earning interest and spending wisely," said Bohan.
The concept for the Saving Magic app resulted from an iOS game that was created for college students and young adults in partnership with MSU's College of Communication Arts & Sciences and Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab. This particular game introduced common financial concepts, such as implementing a budget and learning how credit works, as well as general financial literacy.
"Recognizing the value and success of the game created for college students, we were eager to continue our partnership with the GEL Lab and develop a financial literacy game for a younger demographic," said Bohan.
To date, MSUFCU serves roughly 12,946 members under the age of 18. 4,627 members are ages 13 to17, 5,962 are ages 5 to 12 and 1,775 are ages 0 to 4 years old. The credit union had existing programs in place for these members such as the Sweet Pea account (birth to 4), the Dollar Dog (ages 5 to 12) and Cha-Ching (ages 13 to 17).
In 2012, the idea for Saving Magic was born. Credit union team members along with GEL Lab employees worked with a focus group comprised of approximately 14 youth members. "We asked questions about what types of apps and games do they currently use or play, what do they like and dislike about these apps/games and how do they typically hear about new apps/games," said Bohan. "We found that the theme of magic was something both our male and female youth members found interesting and exciting."
Fantasy and Financials
Armed with this information, the gaming concept was developed, which included popular "kid" fantasy interests such as wizards and magic spells. "There are dragons like in Harry Potter and collecting coins like in Super Mario Bros-type games," noted Bohan.
From concept to rollout, the process took roughly nine months. While the game is described as intuitive, there was testing before the launch. "We conducted beta testing internally with our executive team and asked that they have their children play the game as well and provide feedback," said Bohan.
Designed to be played on all mobile devices, Saving Magic is available for Android and iOS and both members and non-members can download it for free. To date, the app has been downloaded 980 times; however, additional analytics were not available.
"This game is also a tool that parents can use to start conversations with their kids on financial concepts and will help kids learn essential money management skills to be financially successful in the future," said Bohan.
