ORLANDO, Fla. – Three more states have signed on with CUNA’s Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union awareness initiative.
Rolling out their support in the next month will be credit unions in North Dakota, South Dakota and Indiana, CUNA reported, joining Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina and Michigan.
The Open Your Eyes awareness effort has been in development for several years, including extensive consumer research, and was formally announced in January of 2019. At CUNA’s America’s Credit Union Conference in 2018 in Boston, CUNA CEO Jim Nussle announced a goal of raising $100 million over three years to underwrite the effort. To date, CUNA said more than 525 organizations have contributed more than $36 million toward that goal. To date, CUNA said the campaign has reached millions of consumers, gaining 45.7 million impressions and earning eight-million video views to completion. Open Your Eyes is a digital-first media effort.
“The campaign has been extremely successful to date and is performing beyond our expectations,” said CUNA CEO Jim Nussle in remarks before the trade group’s America’s Credit Union Conference here. “Thank you to the hundreds of credit unions that have made contributions to this initiative and to the Credit Union Association of The Dakotas and Indiana Credit Union League. I’m confident that nearly doubling our state presence across the country will continue to spur more positive momentum.”
What Research Shows
Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union follows market research that found 98% of consumers have heard of credit unions, but 72% would not consider joining one. The initiative is aimed at dispelling two myths uncovered in that research: most people believe they are not eligible to join a credit union, and many others also believe it is not easy to access money in a credit union.
“It’s an exciting time to be joining CUNA and the Awareness initiative,” said Chris Lorence, CUNA’s new Chief Credit Union Awareness Officer, in a statement. “This campaign is groundbreaking for credit unions. We’re thrilled to be taking Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union to more consumers and helping to change the perceptions people have about credit unions.”