HONOLULU — As part of an effort to reach younger members, Hawaii Central CU staged a contest to find the fastest texter in town.
HCCU's contest brought in 30 contestants and hours of invaluable exposure at the popular Kahala Mall here. Kiana Lacanaria, 21, of Honolulu, won the contest and its $1,000 first prize, but Travis Uchino, who pulls double duty as manager of both IT and marketing for the $130-million credit union, said the real win came in the opportunity to introduce its rebranding effort to the public.How the Contest WorkedHONOLULU — Hawaii Central CU's texting contest required contestants to type the following:
Hawaii Central Credit Union Connect. Inform. Belong. Serving Hawaii's Businesses and Employees. Open an account today and enjoy the benefits of membership!
The winner was selected for being the fastest and for having the fewest number of errors."The event was held in a mall, so there were hundreds of people there," he told Credit Union Journal two days after the contest. "We felt it was a success because we got our name out there. Turnout for the texting contest was lighter than we expected, but the contest itself was not our main goal."
As Uchino noted, it's not enough for a CU in the islands to just try to differentiate from banks.
"We have 90 credit unions here, and most of them have 'Hawaii Something' in their name. As Hawaii Central, we can get lost in the mix. We are primarily SEG-based, but if someone works for an employer that has less than 3,000 employees, they can join. That pretty much means everyone who doesn't work for the military."
Hawaii Central, which has 14,000 members, recently went through a rebranding and established a new logo and tagline. The new tagline, "Connect. Inform. Belong." was part of the message that gave Lacanaria the title.
According to Uchino, part of the rebranding was a decision to target two segments: small businesses for loans, and college-age students. In pursuit of the latter, it advertised on younger-oriented radio stations with which it does not normally advertise.
"And, we utilized Twitter," he said. "We sent out Tweets every so often reminding people the contest was coming. We only launched on Twitter two months ago, so we are happy to be up to 90 followers so far."
During the contest, representatives from Hawaii Central were present to hand out brochures, and to introduce the CU and explain to passersby why it was hosting the. "We definitely felt we got our message out there. We weren't there to open accounts, or book loans or accept deposits, it was one of our initiatives with the rebranding. It is a stepping stone that we hope will make it easier when we do advertising-people will recognize our name."
Hawaii Central has several other initiatives planned through the end of the year, including several financial education seminars. Once per month, members and the general public will be invited to the CU's headquarters branch.
In a separate contest, the CU asked members to produce the oldest piece of Hawaii Central CU memorabilia. Longtime member George Lee submitted a newsletter from January 1982 to win a $500 prize.
