WASHINGTON–CUNA’s Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union awareness initiative has launched in two more states, Kansas and Missouri, both of which are served by the Heartland Credit Union Association.
Meanwhile, one CU has donated $25,000 to the effort in support of smaller CUs.
“We are proud to participate in this campaign,” said Brad Douglas, president/CEO of Heartland Credit Union Association. “What Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union is aiming to achieve can benefit our entire industry and it is going to take all of us joining together to make this campaign successful.”
In addition to Kansas and Missouri, the campaign is currently running in Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina and Michigan, and has recently also announced it will soon be running in North Dakota, South Dakota and Indiana.
Support for Small CUs
Separately, the Burbank, Calif.-based, $1.8-billion Partners FCU here is supporting small credit unions’ participation in the Open Your Eyes awareness initiative by donating $25,000 to the program on behalf of smaller California credit unions.
“We’re enormously grateful for Partners’ leadership and support of the Awareness initiative,” said Chris Lorence, CUNA chief credit union awareness officer. “Not only are they contributors, they have now taken the extra step to bring more credit unions into the initiative through a generous sponsorship.”
Added Partners FCU President John Janclaes, “We’re not in competition. We’re a collective, and I think this campaign is a moment for credit unions to come together. And, together, we can do great things.”
The Metrics
CUNA said early metrics are exceeding “traditional benchmarks.” As of June 30, the campaign in Minnesota, North Carolina, and South Carolina alone has reached 6.2 million people through programmatic advertising, 4.3 million on social media and 1.3 million on YouTube. It has also gained over 100 million impressions and earned 9.5 million video views from start to finish.
“We understand that it’ll take effort to get the word out, and that this isn’t a one-time thing,” said Janclaes. “That’s why we’re in it for the long haul. After all – big credit unions, small credit unions, rural credit unions, urban credit unions – we’re all coming at the same mission, which is to help households thrive financially.”
How Grant Will Be Distributed
Partners’ $25,000 grant will be distributed so that small credit unions in California can become Awareness contributors, according to CUNA. As contributors, they will have access to campaign materials to use in their own marketing efforts. Partners plans to host several hands-on workshops with CUNA to help participating credit unions leverage these materials, CUNA said.
“Once they’re in the game, we can talk about how to use these assets and be effective, ways to measure who you're hitting, and how you can tell if it's working or not,” said Mike Terzian, Partners executive vice president and chief member service officer. “As a larger credit union, we have more opportunities to try things out and learn from our mistakes. If we can share those lessons to help other credit unions, we’re going to.”