Making Sense of the 'Open Your Eyes' Campaign: Onsite at REACH

Hollywood, Calif. – $1 per member for each of the next three years: That’s what the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues are asking their member credit unions to contribute financially to the Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union campaign.

Acknowledging that credit union leaders have many unanswered questions about the national campaign CUNA first announced this February, speakers explained Wednesday at the leagues’ REACH conference what exactly credit unions that oblige with the donation request will be paying for.

If adequate funding is secured, Open Your Eyes is set to launch Jan. 1 and will entail four components: A multi-channel, digital advertising campaign; a consumer-focused website for credit union awareness at yourmoneyfurther.com; a credit union finder tool built into the website; and in-branch and digital marketing pieces pushed out by individual credit unions that contains messaging consistent with the national campaign.

The goal of the initiative is to dispel two common myths about credit unions – that the average person can’t join one and that all credit unions are local – and grow national credit union market share, which has been flat for the past quarter of a century, Teresa Freeborn, president/CEO of the $905 million, El Segundo, Calif.-based Xceed Financial Credit Union, said. “The only way we can begin to tackle this is to collaborate,” she said. “Each of us needs to contribute financially, and this includes our business partners too. Simply put, our goal is to increase consumer consideration for our industry.”

Conference attendees viewed three versions of a concept video created for the campaign at three different lengths, which may be placed as ads on TV, on YouTube or in social media feeds. The ads will be designed to reach consumers throughout different points of their day, and may include skyscraper banners, elevator display ads and magazine ads, according to GPG Managing Director Graeme Trayner, who also spoke to attendees. GPG is a U.K.- and New York City-based marketing and communications firm and has been developing concepts for Open Your Eyes.

“What you’ll hopefully see in the creative [components of the campaign] is something much more modern, friendly, diverse and youthful,” Trayner said.

While Open Your Eyes is a national effort, the components, strategy and suggested credit union contributions will vary according to the regional market (the $1 per member per year for three years is specific to California and Nevada credit unions), and will be tweaked over time. “We’re taking a brick by brick approach,” Michelle Hunter, chief experience officer for the $1.5 billion Credit Union of Southern California in Anaheim told attendees.

Hunter noted credit unions’ financial contributions will support local media buys, the content creation and the operational aspects of the campaign. Credit unions are also encouraged to review the official Open Your Eyes messaging guide at awareness.creditunion (password: openyoureyes) and incorporate its recommendations into their own marketing and service.

How will the success of the Open Your Eyes initiative be measured? Trayner and Hunter said they’ll be reviewing immediate metrics from digital campaigns, conducting research to measure the long-term changes in consumers’ perceptions of credit unions, the number of click-thrus at the yourmoneyfurther.com website and overall credit union membership growth.

Diana Dykstra, president/CEO of the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, emphasized the urgency of moving forward with Open Your Eyes.

“If we don’t do something today, we’re going to be in the same place we are now 20 years from now,” she said. “We need to step out, take a risk and do what’s right, because at the end of the day, it’s going to benefit all credit unions.”