By Ray Birch
TUCSON, Ariz.—Vantage West Credit Union is using a rapper in its advertising and employing a unique website to promote doing business locally.
The approach, the $1.9-billion CU says, is driving record traffic to its website, and instilling a message within the community that it’s important to keep their money local. In the long run, that will mean more business for the credit union, Vantage West said.
The campaign is designed to encourage personal financial awareness and features Tucson-based rapper Lando Chill. Chill, in a spoken word performance, winds his way through streets and local businesses posing the question, “Where does your money go?” The video can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asv1Y0N7HJ0
“The poem is a powerful rendering of the positive economic effects that occur in a community when individuals cultivate a consciousness about spending more money locally,” the credit union said.
Vantage West said it chose to place the spotlight on local businesses rather than promote the credit union to illustrate how supporting home-grown enterprises strengthens a local economy and benefits everyone. And, it was not afraid to do something different, said Jill Casey, AVP communications and concepts marketing.
Bold Identity
“Our brand identity is very bold,” Casey said. “With credit unions having 8% deposit share, locally and nationally, we felt we needed to stand out in the sea of financial institutions. Sometimes that means doing the unexpected. But we feel that Lando Chill—what he says, his image and what the video says—is fully in line with our brand.”
Casey said that Chill is recognized locally, as are his messages.
“He is passionate about his poems and about his message in our poem that he wrote for us. His message is a common one that people can relate to. It’s a powerful message about everyone working together for the common economic good of the community,” she said.
Andrew Downin, VP of marketing and communications, said Chill’s message has strong emotional appeal.
“When I first saw it, it struck me on an emotional level because it does send the message to each person who watches the video that they can have an impact locally,” said Downin. “What a great message for the community.”
Casey said that Research firm Civic Economics reports shopping locally produces four times as much economic return for the local community, and shifting just 10% of spending to local independent businesses, results in $137 million in new economic activity, 1,600 new jobs, and a 5% decrease in unemployment.
Strong Reaction To Video
Downin said reaction to the video has been strong, with 150,000 impressions in the first two months since the video was released March 1. What has also been impactful, he said, is the video is driving people to a new microsite (whereyourmoneygoes.org) the CU has within its own website that directly addresses the impact people can have on the community by shopping and banking locally.
“In our video we invite viewers to click on a link to special website where they can interact with our Local Impact Calculator to determine, based on choices they make every day—such as where they shop and bank—the exact impact they are having on the local community,” he said.
The site asks five questions: how often a person dines out, banks, uses services, attends the theater and arts events, and shops locally. In each of these categories users select from “never local,” “sometimes local,” “usually local,” and “always local.” As soon as choices are made the website shows in dollars how a person’s spending choices are contributing additional local investment and growth per year.
“We think people need to see and understand the impact they are and can have locally,” said Casey. “Most people care about supporting their communities, but we felt that a calculator was a nice way to quantify it for them, and hopefully leave them feeling good about their choices.”
The reaction to the video and website are leading to a significant boost in website traffic for Vantage West, according to Casey. Website users are up 30% (245,329 vs. 188,059) in the first two months of the campaign, which is slated to run through June. New users are up 41% (196,995 vs. 139,534). And the bounce rate is down 38.5% (27.08% vs. 44.06%).
“This is where we are seeing the biggest impact from our marketing efforts, with this campaign being one of the anchor pieces. We’re bringing in fresh faces that are higher quality and more engaged users,” Casey said.
Early Success
The campaign-specific landing page saw 2,914 unique users in the first two months, with a 6.21% conversion rate to credit union business.
“This is a solid conversion rate for turning those visitors into engaged users with our products and services,” Casey said. “With the campaign being brand focused rather than product focused, we believe the impact on our total traffic is our best indicator of success, along with the cost effectiveness of our media expenditures.”
A movie theater is right next to a Vantage West office and Downin said the movie house understands the value of working together locally.
“The theater plays our video before every movie, showing it with the previews before each show,” Downin said. “That’s the power of local.”