"We wanted to tap into the pop culture buzz surrounding the 'Man of Steel' movie," said Shawn Temple, chief operating officer at Bossier FCU. "During the campaign, we used email marketing, a dedicated 'Man of Steel' microsite, text messages, Facebook, Twitter and even provided an avenue for the community to nominate their everyday superheroes by telling the extraordinary stories of ordinary people."

People were encouraged to submit a story about a real life hero for a chance to win $250 for the hero and $250 for themselves.

"This was basically a referral program in disguise," said Nida Ajaz, marketing and operations manager of CU GROW. "We helped the credit union by setting up a digital lead generation ecosystem to focus on the local community everyday superheroes and incorporate a strategy to get automatic referrals."

"The great thing was it was a simple concept; it humanized the digital channel, and put the focus on the local community and sharing personal superhero stories," Ajaz added. "Within the first few weeks already 100 leads were generated, the majority of them from segmented email marketing, which proves that apart from having a good concept, it is really important to incorporate a great digital user experience and an easy step-by-step digital journey for the consumers online."

There was also a text-to-win contest in theaters.

"The whole campaign created a lot of buzz," Temple added. "The results speak for themselves.  In two months, we realized an additional $1.4 million in loan volume as a direct result of the digital marketing strategy, and the income generated doubled that of the program costs.  Convergence of digital, social, human, fun and creative have found a new sibling: profitability."