Seven Great Marketing Campaign Ideas

Erayne Hill, VP of marketing, Unity One CU, Fort Worth, Texas

We ran a risqué marketing campaign called "Spank Free Banking" that has worked very well. We used all channels, especially digital, plus we had a billboard. The tagline was, "Banking should never feel like a punishment." Our intention was to build brand awareness in Fort Worth. We performed studies before and after the campaign, and we doubled unaided awareness. We also built our membership and increased checking accounts. We are still using it.

Greg Barnes, SVP of marketing, One Nevada CU, Las Vegas

We set several records in 2015, including in three of our six major categories. Auto loans grew 47%, our Visa portfolio increased 8% and we booked $282 million in mortgages, which was our best year ever. We use radio ads and other mass media to raise awareness, then we send targeted marketing pieces, including Experian pre-approvals. We try to be top of mind when people need to refinance. When they walk in the door singing our jingle that is a good sign. We had 14,500 new members join in person and online. My marketing colleagues at One Nevada are some of the best in the industry.

Carolyn Leftwich, VP of marketing, Providence FCU, Portland, Ore.

We had not done a member survey for eight years. We found a research company to help us, and we found a number of things we could improve on, especially lending. Many members had loans elsewhere. We developed a campaign to have them bring over their auto loans. We let members know we do auto lending very well and with a competitive rate. We did a different incentive each quarter. We offered 1% cash back in the first quarter, when we know things are slow. For 4th of July we did a rate drop. In the third quarter we did "Go Nuts" with a squirrel. Winter was a gift of cash. We promoted by direct mail and e-mail, plus video screens in the branches. There were staff incentives for some of the promotions. All of this improved our auto ending considerably. Our ROI was great. We will continue these going forward.

Stephanie Rideout, manager of business development, Baxter CU, Vernon Hills, Ill.

I have to give a shoutout to our marketing people because business development and marketing worked very closely. Target is one of our SEGs, and we implemented a "Save More" campaign for Target employees. We received a lot of great feedback. People were very happy. We did e-mail campaigns, plus promotions in branches and direct mail. The campaign brought in more members and increased deposit balances, along with mortgages and credit cards.

Julie Monahan, business development officer, First Heritage FCU, Painted Post, N.Y.

We did a marketing campaign around our EMV chip conversion for our Visa cards. We were one of the first card issuers in our area to go through a conversion, which allowed us to talk about credit union values. We educated members on why it was so important, and how it protected them from fraud and identity theft. We let them know the conversion was coming well in advance by e-mails and blog entries. We also offered seminars, lunch-and-learns and dinner-and-learns. Later, we let them know how to use their new card.

Tina Payne, director of marketing, Daviess County Teachers FCU, Owensboro, Ky.

We have had a lot of success with gas card promotions, either $50 or $100, connected to auto loans. Sometimes we have drawings for a $100 gas card, sometimes we give a smaller card with every car loan. Our loans had been down until we did the first one, and that shot our loans way up. We only offer gas cards for purchase loans or loans that are brought to us from other institutions, no in-house refinances. We did a promotion on Facebook with an incentive to share, so even if someone did not bring us a loan they could get an entry in a drawing if they shared a mention. We also promoted by doing digital banners on our website, physical banners in our branches and flyers in the drive-thru.