Southeast credit unions are finding the Bank of America debit fee fallout is at last reducing the public's “I don't know what a credit union is” mentality based on results from a co-op ad campaign.
The League of Southeastern Credit Unions said Friday the goodwill bonanza generated by the Bank of America move and the “Credit Unions, We're Giving Banking a Better Name” campaign has brought an influx of calls to the 100 Florida and Alabama CUs co-op ad participants.
“To be part of a campaign that has the possibility to educate such a large quantity of consumers that do not know the basic difference between a credit union and a bank” has been both productive and “exciting,” declared David Eubanks, CEO of the $245 million Community Credit Union of Gadsden, Ala.
Community's call center, said Eubanks, has been bombarded by consumers asking, “we saw the ad on TV/Radio and so what is the difference between a credit union and a bank?”
Since last April LSCU has been conducting its $1.3 million image campaign aimed at reaching a more youthful clientele and “we couldn't have had better timing since this fits nicely into what is happening as a result of the bank fees,” said Michael Bridges, vice president-marketing/communication.
The league said the campaign which also relies heavily on social media is finding that its Facebook ads “are the second highest referral to the website which is witnessing 56,000 visitors in a single month.”
A total of 65% of consumers going to the website “are typing in the URL directly which is a great number and shows they are remembering the website,” said Bridges.
“The statewide image campaign could not have been more pleasing to us considering those debit fees coming from Bank of America and SunTrust,” said James Weibert, CEO of the $49 million Central Florida Postal CU of Orlando adding the CU's “phones and branches remain “extremely busy.”
In launching the “We're Giving Banking a Better Name” ad blitz, LSCU said its research had shown that 60% of the public in Alabama and Florida “don't know what a credit union is or if they can join.”
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