The campaign shows the enormous amount of planning that went into making less than seven minutes of video, and the careful editing required to make the video appealing on Facebook's video feature, then relatively new. And it all had to come together quickly.

BECU launched the "Sue Bird's Surprise" campaign in August 2016 with the Women's National Basketball Association's Seattle Storm and Sue Bird.

"When we thought about a female leader who we already have a relationship with, Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm shot to the top of that list," Joel Ballezza, BECU's social media marketing manager, said.

No wonder. The 5-foot-9 guard was a star player at the University of Connecticut, which was undefeated in her senior year. She was the No. 1 draft pick for the Storm in 2002 and she had already won three Olympic gold medals.

"We reached out to her representatives, and said we'd love to do a story about girls' empowerment. She loved the idea," Ballezza said

• Penn East FCU decided to have fun with its "Ugly Room Contest." This bathroom was the winner, and was posted on Facebook May 26, 2016.
• The videos generated a torrent of Facebook Likes and comments from members of the girls' families and others in the community. The stats included:
• More than 301,000 video views with 822,000 impressions generated across 54 social posts;
• More than 79,000 impressions generated from BECU's sponsorship of the Seattle Storm's Honorary Captain program through 46 social posts; and
• A 24.7% increase in Early Saver account openings in July through September 2016, compared with the third quarter of 2015.
• One of the biggest challenges for BECU was that it had to work around the Olympics' black-out period from July 24 to Aug. 24 when non-official sponsors are not allowed to use Olympic references or images of athletes. Violations can cost athletes their medals.

BECU shot most of the video before the blackout period and was ready to release it just after the Olympics and the end of the blackout. At that point, not only did BECU have a regional superstar, but a member of the team that won the gold for Team USA for the sixth year in a row.

The first video shows Sue Bird surprising a group of fifth and sixth graders on the court as they practice with their Seattle Rotary Lady Style basketball team.

"When she walked out and surprised the girls at one of their normal practices, their eyes lit up. A wave of emotion rolled across the team. It was an amazing response," he said.

But BECU also had cameras on the court ready to record those responses, and the girls' reactions can be clearly seen in the video.

At the end of the first video, Bird invites the girls to one of the Storm's practices. The practice was scheduled after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The first episode was filmed before the blackout period started July 27 and the second episode was scheduled to be filmed after the blackout ended Aug. 24.

The second video shows the girls attending the Storm practice right after Sue Bird returned from the Olympics. Fortunately, Team USA had won, beating Spain 101-72 Aug 20. It was Bird's fourth Olympic gold.

BECU posted the first video at 12:22 p.m. on Aug. 25, and the second one three hours later.

The third episode was shot Aug. 26, 2016, when the girls see the Storm defeat the Los Angeles Sparks 79-72, with Bird scoring 15 points. Afterwards Bird walks over to the girls in the stands and they take a selfie. BECU took a leisurely four days before posting the third episode.

The first video was three minutes; the others are progressively shorter, with the third episode running 1.5 minutes. A behind-the-scenes video has Stephen Black, BECU's vice president of marketing, talking about the campaign's purpose as scenes from the videos and the shooting of the videos are shown. It ran just over one minute.

"As a package, we felt it told a really comprehensive story," Ballezza said.

Katelyn McManamon, Penn East's marketing and business development manager, presents an award to the winner of the Scranton, Pa., credit union's "Ugly Room Contest" in this June 10, 2016 Facebook post.

BECU started with the ingredients for an engaging story, but it carefully chose how to present it effectively, choosing Facebook's video platform and exploiting its auto-play feature.

When a viewer scrolls past the video, it begins playing silently. BECU knew Sue Bird was recognizable to most Seattle-area residents. It teased the story further with brief bits of text appearing on the screen.

"If they're engaged, they'll turn on the audio and watch," he said.

Ballezza said that detail illustrates why credit union marketers should consider how their content will be distributed as part of the content's design. "You want to take that into consideration before you even film, edit and produce the video."

Credit unions, however, don't control Facebook or other platforms, and the rules of presentation and distribution are constantly changing.

"Be a constant student," Ballezza said. "Always stay up on changing platforms and marketing techniques."

United Heritage Credit Union generated engagement with an approach as tried and true as the electric waffle iron.

In 2015, UHCU launched a "Holiday Giveaway" campaign on social media. Part of the secret was to provide the right incentives that would lead people to engage with the credit union's social media to become more familiar with its services and benefits. Some of the incentives were improved with the second round of the campaign in 2016. For example, board games were found to be less popular than tickets to a local movie chain that served beer and pizza.

The contest was also designed so that entrants could win one of five prizes. After submitting an official entry via the form on the credit union's website, entrants could gain an unlimited number of extra entries by interacting with specified Holiday Giveaway posts on its Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ accounts.

The campaign drew several thousand entries, a 24% increase from 2015. Social media engagement rose more than four-fold. UHCU boosted its posts with paid placements, according to Kevin Farley, UHCU's assistant vice president of digital and brand experience.

"We do use paid in the mix, especially for content like this," Farley said. "We want to use this as an opportunity to expand our audience. If we can get in front of more people, we have an opportunity to bring more people into the credit union."

BECU spent $19.6 million last year on educational and promotional expenses, or 6% of its operating budget. UHCU spent $2.2 million or 8% of its operating budget.

Penn East spent $143,238, or 2% of its operating budget.

These panels show moments from the first episode of the video series, "Sue Bird's Surprise," which BECU filmed before the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Part of that money was spent at Goodwill on furniture in early 2016 to set up in branches to illustrate the concept behind the credit union's "Ugly Room Contest."

Katelyn McManamon, marketing and business development manager, makes up half of the Penn East marketing department, along with marketing specialist Bill Sweeney. McManamon and Sweeney drummed the contest through the "ugly" vignettes they set up in branches, posters and emails to members. But they especially used Facebook.

"We were trying to engage people on our social media without shoving loans in their faces," McManamon said. "You would unfriend someone, or unfollow someone in the business realm, who is constantly pushing things in your face. This was a way to engage our social media audience, and bring up home equity lines in a softer way."

The contest was simple: Members and others in the community had a month to enter the contest by submitting an email. The contest and links were promoted through Facebook. Then the Penn East staff chose the finalists, which were then presented on Facebook with a link allowing social media users to vote using an app called Woobox.

Announcing the winner allowed for a final round of Facebook posts.

Penn East started the campaign with about 500 Likes to its Facebook page. It added another 150 Likes by its end in June 2016. The contest drew 40 entries and 2,068 votes.

"That was huge for us," she said. "We're not a Facebook powerhouse; we're a small credit union. That was the first time we got really creative on Facebook, and we found it really worked for us. For credit unions with lower means, it's a fun way to get out in the community and get your message out pretty easily."