LAS VEGAS — It is difficult to make an impression among the bright lights in this entertainment and gambling capital, but Nevada Federal Credit Union already is garnering feedback from what it calls its "provocative billboard campaign."
Greg Barnes, SVP of marketing for the $804-million CU, noted a picturee of one of the billboards has already made its way into the "Vegas Deluxe" blog authored by Robin Leach of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" fame. The billboard, which declares Nevada Federal's green checking is "Better Than Pens & Tellers," caught the eye of none other than Emily Jillette, wife of Penn Jillette, who is one-half of the comedy and magic team of Penn & Teller. "Penn Jillette's wife saw it and took a picture," Barnes told Credit Union Journal. "Someone from the show called to say they thought it was funny and wanted to know where the billboard was. We were worried they might want us to take it down, but they liked it. It is free publicity for the show."
Barnes said Nevada Federal wanted the billboards to appeal to locals, and in some cases Vegas awareness is required. Las Vegas Athletic Club has numerous signs around town noting its "Ladies Join Free" offer, which the CU co-opted into, "Ladies and Men Join for $5. Lifetime Membership" and "$5 Lifetime Membership. No Sweat."
Another example: Las Vegas has seen many of its night clubs morph into so-called "ultra lounges" in recent years, complete with "bottle service," meaning patrons can purchase liquor by the bottle, rather than have drinks poured at the bar. In one billboard Nevada Federal declared itself "The New Ultra Credit Union. With Member Service."
And, of course, numerous casinos allege they have the "loosest slots in town," which was transformed into: "Loosest ATMs in Town. With 54 Locations." Said Barnes: "We wanted our billboards to spoof these things and really get a buzz going."
In addition to the tongue-in-cheek ads, many of the 20 billboard designs focus on two of Nevada Federal's checking products: green checking and second chance checking. For green checking, slogans include: "Not Just For Tree Huggers. Green Checking" and "Frogs Would Approve. Green Checking." The latter is a sly reference to Muppet Kermit the Frog and his signature song, "It's Not Easy Being Green."
"We wanted to say, 'Kermit Would Approve,' but we figured that is copyrighted," Barnes said with a laugh. "We are the only bank or credit union in town promoting green checking. Some of the green checking signs at our branches have frogs on them."
And if the meaning behind "Frogs Would Approve" isn't immediately apparent to those who read the billboard? "The whole theory is people see it when they drive by and might not get it the first time, might not get it the second time, but they are curious and might come to our website. Ultimately, we want to get people to join and increase membership," he said.
A Special Deal
Second chance checking drew several nods, including: "What Happened at the Bank, Stays at the Bank," "Everyone Makes Mistakes. We Forgive," "Denied by The Bank? Accepted by us," "Need Another Chance? Let's make up," "Checking Account Closed? We're close by," and "Past Checking Problems? No problem."
Nevada Federal began rolling out the provocative billboards in August, and "finally got all the boards printed and posted [by Sept. 11]," Barnes said. "It took about six weeks to get all 20 of them up. We did a special deal with Clear Channel. Any time a billboard is available for a period of time, we go up there. So we will rotate around town and at a pretty good price. Because we are not picky about location, we can get a better price."
About the only blip so far has come from what Barnes said was a small number of negative reactions to a billboard declaring, "This Economy Sucks, But We Don't." "Everybody is tired of this economy, with unemployment in Nevada over 13%, houses underwater...we hoped people would see the humor in it," he said.
With numerous billboards in Las Vegas populated by barely clothed models - both male and female - Barnes said people decrying use of the word "sucks" was somewhat surprising.
"This is Las Vegas. We can pull off some things here we couldn't in other parts of the country," he asserted. "There are some pretty risqué billboards with women around town, and there are the Chippendales men, so we figured we could get away with things we couldn't in Abilene, Texas, or something. We wanted to be intriguing. We wanted to create a buzz."
The campaign will continue indefinitely, Barnes added. "We'll just keep moving them around town so people won't get tired of the same message. It might be three months, it might be six months, depending on how it goes. The boards promote membership and two different checking products, so it's not as if it is for a coupon or something."
