EECU Goes Fishing for Loans

FRESNO, Calif. – Have you heard the fish story of Educational Employees Credit Union pulling in over $28,264,000 in new loans? Well unlike other fishing stories this one is 100% true. Designed by Hollister, California-based brand consulting firm Redbeard Communications Inc., a fishing themed direct mail campaign has helped the $1.15 billion credit union open 1,574 loans in just two months. “We thought our goal of $24 million would be a stretch for us since loan growth has been harder for us to achieve this year-so to end up with over $28 million is just amazing,” said EECU Vice President of marketing Scott Ingram. “We like fun, unique campaigns and this one had it all because the member response was great.” With the slogan, “It may be the greatest catch you’ve ever made”, the campaign featured a unique montage of aged photographs of cars, boats, and RVs mixed with fishing design elements including driftwood, fishing lures, bottle caps, ropes, sea-sponges and netting. According to Redbeard President Greg Hoffman the collage/scrapbooking techniques used in this promotion marked a first. “From a design standpoint it was a fun yet challenging project -once we had the layout on paper we set out to find all the various elements we’d need. We wanted the pieces to have a rustic flavor so ultimately many of the dimensional elements came from antique stores and surplus houses,” said Hoffman. “My wife and business partner has quite a bit of experience in the scrapbooking field so she handled the actual layout working with the art director. The goal was to visually and creatively break through the promotional noise that consumers are exposed to and we’re pleased with the end result.” At a price tag of $32,000 the campaign included banners, teller signs, poster displays at all 10 EECU branches and direct mail sent in two waves to some 20,000 targeted members.