LANSING, Mich.–Michigan’s credit unions have become the latest to sign on with CUNA’s national awareness campaign, “Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union.”
According to the Michigan Credit Union League, it will update its cooperative advertising campaign, CU Link Michigan, to align with the CUNA effort at increasing consumer awareness of credit unions as a financial option.
“CUNA and MCUL collaborating on the awareness campaign is a great example of the value of the CUNA/league System and how we work together in areas of advocacy and promoting credit union value,” said MCUL CEO Dave Adams in a statement. “This is what the CUNA/League system is all about — being a catalyst for cooperative efforts that advance the credit union model state by state.”
According to the MCUL, with support from CU contributions and matching funds from the league, it invests nearly $2.2 million each year to “amplify the credit union difference.”
Set to launch in April, the more than $2-million in media buys will run over the following 12 months.
What Research Has Shown
For the past two years, the MCUL said it and CUNA have coordinated on statewide consumer research projects.
“Michigan-specific research showed that consumers in the state already know they are eligible to join a credit union,” the league said. “However, many consumers perceive that credit unions are not as convenient, tech-savvy or diverse in service offerings as banks. The goals of the MCUL ad campaign will be to debunk these myths by promoting credit unions as convenient, high-value, service-oriented, full-service financial institutions that offer great mobile banking features — all under the theme of ‘Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union,’ tying into recent national efforts.”
“Building on two decades of successful cooperative advertising in our state, more than 54% of Michigan consumers now belong to a credit union and they hold over 19% of consumer household deposits,” said Adams. “These metrics are the highest of any top 10 state in the U.S. Our goal now is to reinforce the reasons why 550 Michigan consumers and 10,000 nationally are joining a credit union each day. When it comes to consumer and small business financial services, credit unions are the highest-value, most-trusted offering available.”