While many credit unions struggle to add to their meager mortgage loan share, one CU drew a flurry of activity with a marketing campaign that tapped into the "buzz" surrounding a piece of pop culture.
AltaOne Federal Credit Union's "Desperate House Loans" program played off the popularity of the television show "Desperate Housewives," and played up the fact that obtaining a loan from the CU is easy.
The media component included a series of four radio spots, print ads, statement inserts, in-branch posters and a take-home, in-branch piece. It drew $7 million in mortgage originations during the first two months and, despite no media after that initial campaign, an additional $20 million in loans came in in the three following months. The CU said the number of first mortgage applications during the initial month of the campaign were double those of the same month the previous year.
Wendy Cleveland, vice president of marketing and business development for AltaOne, said she was a fan of the show when she attended a roundtable hosted by MAC (the Marketing Association of Credit Unions) in fall 2004. The topic was pop culture, and suddenly, Cleveland was seized by inspiration.
Getting The Buzz
"I had observed the buzz around 'Desperate Housewives,' and I'd seen the actresses on the cover of TV Guide and other entertainment magazines," she recalled. "We were throwing out ideas, having fun with it, and I said, 'Desperate House Loans.' Then I said, 'Wow! I'm going to use that.'"
Cleveland took the idea back to AltaOne and began planning a promotion. She contacted Redbeard Communications, a Hollister, Calif.-based marketing and advertising consultancy that has developed campaigns for several other CUs.
"I was familiar with Redbeard because I had seen their work and liked their cutting-edge approach. I knew Redbeard would be able to flesh out the idea and bring it to life," she added.
Gregg Hoffman, president of Redbeard Communications, said AltaOne's representatives approached his company with a "pretty well-formed thought."
"They knew they wanted it to be for mortgages, and they knew they wanted it to be with a 'Desperate Housewives' theme. The question was: would it work, or would it be too difficult to communicate the idea? We wanted to give it a shot."
First, Redbeard conceptualized the messaging, Hoffman continued. He said the marketers had to do a lot of research on the show, its tone, and how to capture the "essence" of the nighttime soap opera "without overstepping the boundaries of taste, as the show is pretty racy."
"We portrayed the actresses of the show with each person in the radio spots saying something about the loan process, echoing the four main characters. Also, we wanted to capture the visual tone of the program in the print ads."
The result: a series of radio spots that featured four female characters who live on "AltaOne Lane" (a takeoff on the TV's show's fictional location, "Wisteria Lane").
The four: "Patty High-Payment," "Flora Fee-Hater," "Heather Home-Improvement" and "Suzanne Smart-Shopper." Smart-Shopper is an AltaOne member who gives financial advice to her friends-often extolling the virtues of AltaOne home loans as the solution to their various problems.
In the production notes for the script, Smart-Shopper is described as "the only one who sounds normal/rational/sane/intelligent; Patty is a drama queen, Flora is a catty complainer, and Heather is a less-than-brilliant doormat."
Cleveland said she made a rough draft of the radio scripts, and wanted to mimic the style of old-time radio soap operas. "Redbeard really made them work," she said. "I was very happy with the production and the voice talent they hired was just perfect."
Hoffman said he was pleased the campaign was successful despite not having a direct mail component.
"Direct mail allows us to be more in-depth in communicating the offer, but the fact the messaging was able to get across without a lot of detail, I thought that was a good result," he assessed.
Two Factors Boosted Success
According to Cleveland, two factors helped boost the success of the "Desperate House Loans" campaign. First, just prior to the start of the promotion, AltaOne launched a partnership with Prime Alliance, an online mortgage service. Also, the CU had modified its HELOC program to use a prime-rate base, which she said drove some mortgage volume.
"The thrust of the campaign was how easy it was to get a mortgage with AltaOne-no drama! The ease of the online service made a big difference."
The campaign has drawn numerous accolades, including four "Diamond Awards" at the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council conference earlier this year. The awards were for: single print ad, radio campaign, statement insert and point of purchase. In addition, "Desperate House Loans" received a merit award in the complete campaign category.
Cleveland said although AltaOne has not done another collaboration with Redbeard, she definitely would consider working with the company again.
"It was a really fun campaign. It was fun from the original concept to running it," she said. "Watching the original idea come to life through Redbeard's work was really an exciting process. And the members' response was very gratifying."
