HIGHTSTOWN, N.J.-The New Jersey CU League has rolled out a statewide multi-media ad campaign that seeks to use the current economy to reinforce the the value of credit unions.
The campaign also includes television commercial with its local stations News 12 NJ, sponsorship of the "It's Your Money" television show on News 12 NJ, commercials on MSNBC through Comcast cable, two-minute on-demand video about CUs available to New Jersey Comcast subscribers, Internet advertising linked to the findacreditunion.com site on the e-mail login page of the Comcast site, and print advertising in New Jersey newspapers. This year also marks the second year of a three-year deal with Rutgers football and men's and women's basketball sponsorships-with advertisements appearing in game programs and on banners in stadiums.
Ads Can Be Customized
Credit unions that wish to sponsor the spots can customize the last 30 seconds following 30 seconds on the broader credit union m essage. "Last year, before our rebrand and changes to the Ad Co-Op, we decided that New Jersey needed a more consistent and simple advertising campaign-something that ran throughout the year, not just on specific days or weeks," said Candice Nigro, director of marketing and communications for the New Jersey Credit Union League. "We ran advertisements in local newspapers, on local websites and on the radio throughout the entire year, focusing our efforts on trying to teach people what credit unions are and how they are member-focused."
Nigro said the league will continue to do this throughout 2009.
Paul Gentile, president/CEO of the NJCUL, believes they chose the perfect time to launch a new campaign.
"What better time for consumers to wake up to the value of credit unions than during an economic crisis? Credit unions are that save haven consumers can trust," he said. "After having the YOU campaign for two years, it was time for a change. We needed to focus our ad campaign on awareness and move away from some of the cutesy, funny ad campaigns that are out there. We needed to have something that was customized to the uniqueness of our state."
The brand was created by Greylock Marketing-a CUSO of Greylock FCU. Aside from the costs to Greylock and the production costs for the television commercials, the league did its own media buying as a way to save money, in addition to doing whatever else than can in-house to cut costs.
"We develop a strict budget at the start of the year, which helps us negotiate prices with the different media companies we do business with, and have been lucky to have the support of our credit unions behind us," Gentile said.
Nigro said that since the change in focus late last year, the league has already seen their numbers on findacreditunion.com go up.
"We have had months that we doubled, even tripled, the previous month numbers," she said. "Our first ads late last year-before the rebranded logo-had my phone number and I received about five calls a day. At the beginning of January, a current credit union member called to help her daughter find a credit union she could join. She was so grateful for the help, she calls monthly to check in."
The new logos are a large component of the new campaign.
"The color boxes of our new logo represent the melting pot that is New Jersey," Nigro explained. "We are all different but we are all in it together. Just like our credit unions. We have big guys and small guys and we stand unified together for the movement. That's why our league logos play off of our advertising logo."
Looking For Something Fresh
Nigro said the new logos were created because "we were looking for something fresh and different that was not only hip, but was self-explanatory."
"Our new logo says who we are and our slogan explains what we do," she said. "The big YOU from previous years needed explanation and in a state that needs greater awareness that doesn't really help you."
This year, the league also disbanded its formal corporate advertising campaign, as a way to "depoliticize the advertising with the state and to create a smoother, more streamlined process for our media buying," Gentile said.
"It was hard to get a group of people together to make decisions about media buys when the decisions needed to be made on the fly," he explained. "By having no formal committee to consult, media buying has become much easier and faster than last year."
Gentile noted that the changes also helped the league's relationship with its credit unions.
"I think credit unions know our doors are open to them," he said. "We take their suggestions and their needs seriously and are open to hearing from than any time. Many of the decisions that we have made with the ad campaign were suggestions of credit unions in the state. NJCUL is much more transparent to its membership than in previous years. We now update the membership on a regular basis and specifically the advertising initiative will provide updates on a quarterly basis to not only those who have contributed but to those who haven't to keep them informed."
For more information
www.njcul.org
www.findacreditunion.com
www.pcua.coop
www.vcul.org
www.mcus.com
