WESTBROOK, Maine–Two client credit unions of Synergent were recently recognized for marketing excellence by the Marketing Association of Credit Unions. Winning awards from MAC were Merrimack Valley Credit Union and Bangor FCU.
In the Market Segment Program category, Merrimack Valley Credit Union’s campaign received a Silver Award for its “Cool Winter Auto Loans Postcard and Email Campaign,” and Bangor Federal Credit Union’s entry received a Bronze Award for its “Auto Loan Postcard” promotion.
According to Synergent, when Merrimack Valley Credit Union turned to it to assist with auto loan marketing, pre-campaign data analytics showed members sending auto loan payments to other financial institutions from the credit union’s accounts and they wanted to recapture those loans. Through a targeted effort - leveraging captivating creative - an easy online loan application, and a low refinancing rate, Merrimack Valley Credit Union secured 349 new auto loans totaling $6,126,233 in new lending from this effort, surpassing its marketing goal by 960%. This equated to a $49 return on investment in interest income for every dollar spent on the campaign.
“From a marketing perspective, Synergent’s ability to tap into our data and provide business intelligence is very helpful when doing targeted marketing campaigns like our Cool Winter effort,” said Yean-Ai Long, SVP-marketing for Merrimack Valley CU. “We are very pleased with the data analysis Synergent provides. This particular effort paid for itself in just three weeks.”
Bangor Federal Credit Union also turned to Synergent with the goal of increasing its auto loan portfolio by 7%. Synergent’s strategy provided a consistent approach to recapture opportunities across the credit union’s lending portfolio, the company said. Synergent leveraged promotional tactics that marketed reduced rates and cash back incentives and a simple online application. As a result, Bangor FCU exceeded its marketing goal by 829% and generated $929,147 in new auto lending with their return on their investment equaling $36 in interest income for every dollar spent on the campaign.
“We had been doing an auto loan recapture program for a few years with another vendor and although the results were adequate, there was always something in the program that was missing,” said Tina Morrill, Director of Marketing for Bangor Federal Credit Union and member of the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council Executive Committee.“After learning about Synergent’s platform and the expanse of the data mining involved, as well as their collaborative nature, and design ideas, the decision to switch was an easy one. Synergent is just what we needed to take our campaign to the next level and because of this, we were able to solidify a CUNA Diamond Award and a MAC Award in the same year – what an honor!”