Northern United FCU has shown that a small CU can get strong card results without having to spend a lot of money.
The 3,500-member, $20 million Upper Peninsula institution spent $2,200 on a print and radio campaign that grew the number of accounts and increased its portfolio's outstanding balances by $100,000.
The campaign was successful enough that it won a CAMEO award from Card Services for Credit Unions, the association of credit unions that process card transactions with FIS.
Northern United's CEO, Karen Dahl, said the CU had linked the campaign, which ran from September through October of last year, to Halloween and the popular legacy television program “The Addams Family.”
The print ad depicted CU staff dressed as Gomez and Morticia Addams and other CU staff provided voices on the radio as the character Lurch and a generic vampire voice.
“We often run fall card promotion campaigns,” explained Dahl, adding that the CU took advantage of both the run up to the December holidays and the often-reduced advertising rates at that time.
The campaign also served the important purpose of helping Northern United stand out, Dahl explained. Northern United is the smallest of five credit unions in a very small area of Escanaba, Mich., and likes doing things to draw attention, Dahl explained.
“We have five credit unions within three blocks of here,” she said. “Not three miles, three blocks, and we are the smallest of the five. We like doing things that help people notice us.”
Click the right arrow immediately below to hear the radio ads.
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