HOUSTON, Texas-Chalk up one more credit union marketer who says enough already with advertising great rates and great service.
"There's got to be something more," proclaimed Patrick Flynn, sales and promotion coordinator at People's Trust FCU here.
Credit unions have always made a point of differentiating themselves from the banks-particularly in recent months with all the hoopla surrounding Bank Transfer Day-but People's Trust got to the party early.
The credit union launched its "Happy Unbanking" campaign in fall 2007, and while the billboards have long since been taken down and the ads are no longer on the radio, the campaign has been incorporated into PTFCU's general messaging. Happy Unbanking appears in the CU's printed collateral, the back of its business cards-even at the end of Flynn's voicemail greeting.
"We did an Un-Scary Mortgage campaign, Painless Car Loans-even though Happy Unbanking wasn't actively being promoted, people saw the same style of letters and were able to put two and two together," said Flynn.
Flynn said People's Trust has not tracked the campaign's effect on membership or loan growth, because it was always viewed as a branding campaign. "We thought it was very successful, and we measured our success based on what our members were saying when they would come into the branches, what non-members were saying when they opened accounts, what our employees' friends were saying and the press we got for the campaign," said Flynn.
Not Part of Bank Transfer Day
Despite having incorporated Happy Unbanking into its everyday activities, People's Trust did not revive the campaign for Bank Transfer Day. "In 2011 we weren't trying to grow too much anyway, and especially deposits," said Flynn. "If people wanted to move their money over to us, we would gladly take it and be their financial institution ... but we didn't go out of our way to promote Bank Transfer Day and get people to switch their stuff over."
Flynn said that consumers responded to Happy Unbanking because they appreciated the tone. "We didn't want to make fun of banks or talk bad toward the banks," he said. "We didn't want to take an aggressive approach toward them. We're more than happy to help our members and help prospective members...but the MO behind the campaign was always that we didn't want to attack or be overly aggressive."
The change of tone away from standard CU messaging also helped interest consumers, he added. "It gets you out of the boring financial services mentality and lets you connect better; there needs to be a better connection than 'We have better rates and service.'"
