SAN ANTONIO –The CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council awarded its Diamond Awards here, with BECU of Tukwila, Wash. being awarded the Diamond Best of Show Award, while the Council also presented its Excellence Awards.
This year’s Diamond Awards competition received 1,147 entries. Six credit unions won Best of Show Awards, 59 won Category’s Best Awards and 264 won Diamond Awards.
Below is a list of the Best of Show honorees:
Diamond Best of Show Award: BECU in Tukwila, Washington was honored for their Early Saver video. BECU created the Early Saver, which is meant to educate youth on the importance of responsible financial habits. Early Saver wants to get children under the age of 17 in the habit of saving money early. They go about doing this through videos shared on social media, and the incentive that they will receive a premium interest rate of 6.17% APY on the first $500 deposited. Through both, they are hoping parents will open the Early Saver accounts for their children. The target demographic is parents with children under the age of 17 and kids between the ages of 6-12 years.
Color Award for Brilliant Use of Art:
Rocky Mountain CU in Helena, Montana, was awarded the Color Award for Brilliant Use of Art for their GEAR Loan Campaign. Rocky Mountain created a GEAR Loan, which was specifically targeted to members who would be purchasing outdoor gear. This could be college students, families and young professions who may want to purchase new gear, or update the outdoor gear they already own. Rocky Mountain spoke with members and realized there was a large untapped market of individuals who would find it useful to take out a loan to obtain the gear they wanted faster. The marketing messages imagery and focus shifted with the season to better fit the consumer need. The credit union had set a marketing goal of $1,055,000 to be made in six months. At the completion of the campaign, they made $1,708,901.02, which is 61.9% above their marketing goal.
Cut Award for Most Edgy: Listerhill CU in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, won for their Member or Trade Publication, SET Magazine.
Listerhill created SET Magazine, which engages the younger generation in the community with a magazine written by fellow youth. The magazine is designed to engage youth, advocate for Listerhill and to join. Each month meetings are held to allow young people to express themselves, develop skills, build their portfolio and publish their work. Some of the categories include lifestyle, finance, technology and community. The credit union can communicate the value of their products and positively reinforce their brand and mission. In addition, it gives them opportunities to promote engaging contests to increase their social and online presence. This is distributed monthly to over 160 locations across Alabama and Tennessee. The main people they are hoping to reach would be local youth ranging from 15 – 29 years of age.
Clarity Award for Most Sentimental: BECU in Tukwila, Washington, won for their Sue Bird's Surprise Campaign. BECU created Sue Bird’s Surprise, which was a social content campaign highlighting the partnership with local WNBA Team, Seattle Storm. This campaign was designed to promote the BECU’s Early Savers program which promoted kids learning about saving money, spending responsibly and how interest rates work. The social content included videos, photos, GIFs and blog posts that focused on developing fundamental skills of succeeding in sports and adopting sound financial habits. The credit union partnered with Seattle Storm to help coach a youth team named The Lady Style. With this partnership, a three episode video series was created along with multi-media blog posts to show the experience and impact on the young female players.
Each video showed unique footage ranging from being told they were chosen, the impact the personalized coaching made and how this positively impacted the young girl’s experience. In addition, twenty children were chosen to be Honorary Team Captains for games throughout Seattle Storm’s season. The goals of BECU were to earn 50,000 video views, 100 percent increase in post engagement and 4,109 account openings. They were able to surpass their goals by obtaining 200% increase in Facebook page likes, 195,00 plus video views, 651% increase in post engagement and 4,454 new accounts opened. The video can be found here.
Carat Award for Greatest Impact: Georgia United CU in Duluth, Georgia, won for their School Crashers 2016 Campaign. Georgia United created Georgia United School Crashers 2016, which is an annual event that gives local schools a makeover. There is one grand prize winner along with deserving runner ups. The process includes nominating a deserving school, have each go through a judging process where the list is narrowed down to 20 finalists.
From there, those schools are informed they are finalists and judging continues and breaks down to the main winner and runner ups. Georgia United works with various media partners and applies for donations to assist with the overall process. This event is known state wide, which reinforces the credit union’s commitment to supporting education. The main group of people this event is targeting is educators.
Best Use of Humor Award: Elevations CU in Boulder, Colorado, won for their Community Egg Lending video. To tell the lighter side of Elevations’ story, and to leverage their long history of fun, engaging videos that Elevations promotes through social media, they launched a new episodic video series called “Adventures in Localism”. The first video was called “Hey, Neighbor”, the second was “Community Egg Lending” and the series, which features their front line staff in humorous fictional situations (think “The Office” in a bank setting), emphasizes the value of localism and community. These videos were wildly successful with members and staff alike and the Egg Lending video had more than 100,000 (and counting) views on Facebook and YouTube, their most popular video ever. CUToday.info featured the campaign here.
Excellence Awards
Separately, the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council announced its Excellence Awards, which recognize outstanding new marketing and business development approaches with potential for universal application across the industry. Winners included
Business Development: Partners Federal Credit Union, Burbank, California, for its Partners Mobile Branch. As part of its integration with The Walt Disney Company, Partners supports enterprise initiatives through Integrated Marketing Campaigns, Haitian Relief Loans, Payroll Assistance, Education Workshops, Event Sponsorships, on-property ATM placement, and the new Partners Mobile Branch. This Partners Mobile Branch is indeed a full-service branch on wheels which provides traditional banking services along with an ATM, seminar space, and disaster relief capabilities if needed. Within four months of operation, the branch originated $553, 840 in new loans, processed over 400 teller transactions, and welcomed over 100 new members. With this level of partnership, the credit union is able to demonstrate that they are not simply a financial services provider or employee benefit, but truly a valuable resource and part of The Walt Disney Company family!
Community Outreach and/or Political Advocacy: Global Credit Union, Spokane, Washington, for its Global Star Advocacy Program. In July 2016, Global created a company-wide advocacy program which advances the credit union movement. The Global Star Advocacy Program is broken down into four star levels with differing requirements to advance to the next level. When an employee advances, they will be given special awards to showcase their participation. These employees will take part in advocacy activities be it volunteering for events, attending meetings, advocating on social media and continually growing their knowledge. The program not only educates employees, but because of the knowledge gained, the employees are able to pass that knowledge onto members to show the credit union difference. Since the beginning of the program, the credit union has seen a 30% increase in employee participation, 17% increase in participation with CULAC month, 1500% in member participation during CULAC and increased fundraising totals by 56%.
Multifaceted: Louisiana Credit Union League, Harahan, Louisiana, for its #LACUStrong Challenge. Louisiana Credit Union League created a national challenge called the Louisiana CU Strong Challenge that helped bring awareness and financial assistance to the victims of the flood. People across the country posted videos sharing their official acceptance of this change. The donations received were deposited into a Louisiana Credit Union Foundation Designated Fund to be distributed to affected credit union employees. For every credit union that donated, signage was sent to them to display their support of those in need. This campaign exemplified collaboration, cooperation and partnership among associations and credit unions. The results included 30,400 views on Facebook and thirty-six media outlets used. The #LACUStrong challenge helped raise more than $300,000 for the Foundation and provided 430 credit union employees with financial assistance.