CU Brand Awareness: The Consumer Journey to Membership & Market Share

The Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union campaign was conceived out of both curiosity and necessity. Why had credit union market share remained stubbornly stagnant at 7% over the last 25 years? What could be done to create the momentum necessary to significantly move the needle? Our market research revealed consumers were familiar with credit unions. What’s more, credit unions had a positive reputation in the financial services industry. So why weren’t more people joining credit unions? The research clearly revealed consumers weren’t sure of their eligibility to join, and if they did, they assumed accessing their money would be difficult and available only locally.

Our mission became clear – increase consumer consideration for credit unions. A digital-first consumer marketing campaign, Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union, launched in just one state, Minnesota, in January 2019. The targeted, persona-based, paid digital campaign kicked off in partnership with contributing credit unions and their customized local engagement. Consumer response to the digital campaign gained momentum, and the campaign spread rapidly from state to state. The initiative quickly stood on its own as CU Awareness, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CUNA, received a groundswell of support funded entirely by credit unions and industry service providers.

Since then, the digital campaign has reached billions of consumers who are “in-market” for a financial service. Running seven days a week, 24 hours a day in 25 states nationwide, the campaign never stopped – until the pandemic stopped the world. The campaign paused digital outreach for just 62 days to allow consumers to catch their breath. The pandemic, social and civil unrest, and record unemployment challenged our nation, our industry and the Open Your Eyes campaign. We listened to consumers’ needs and recalibrated our approach to better align with consumers’ realities. We added even more diverse imagery and focused messaging on the credit union difference in times of adversity. We also created and deployed more campaign features and benefits to help contributing credit unions bridge the gap between consumer interest and the ultimate in consideration, an opportunity for membership.

So, what have we learned along the way that continues to excite, inform and evolve our mission?

1. Consumer engagement is the barometer for determining the impact of messaging and imagery. As the pandemic kept consumers at home, the campaign delivered pro-credit union advertising to consumers with messaging that resonated. As a result, over six million consumers engaged with YourMoneyFurther.com, four million of those since August 2020. This was achieved through our nimble approach and relentless focus on optimization to extend reach, increase efficiency and drive greater consumer engagement. As we look to the future we must shift away from one-way communication, such as traditional direct response campaigns, toward a two-way conversation with consumers. Digital marketing enables consumers to respond and interact with the campaign to help us better understand which messages resonate. We must engage and interact with consumers across the country in a way that is not only educational but also personal to their experience.

2. Active engagement from credit unions is essential to move the needle. The Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union campaign is the sixth universal cooperative principal at work – cooperatives cooperating. Credit unions are doing something no other financial brand can do – unite for the betterment of the movement. Results so far indicate consumer consideration elevates in states where credit unions work together to deliver a robust media budget and activate the campaign locally. The next wave of consumer consideration research (expected in late spring 2021) will no doubt show a continued rise in top-of-mind consideration. But we can’t stop there.

3. Long-term sustainable change requires diligence, persistence and collaboration. Decades of market stagnation and deeply entrenched consumer myths will take more than a few years of digital marketing to change. The consumer decision journey is complex, and we want to work with credit unions to deploy marketing strategies that help consumers gain a better understanding of our mission so they can actively evaluate it, ultimately leading to more members and market share.

4. Now more than ever, consumers have more financial choices and more alternatives to traditional banking models. With fierce competition from fintechs seeking long-term financial relationships with millennials, the Open Your Eyes campaign is uniquely positioned to help credit unions gain inroads with this consumer segment. The powerful AI-driven technology behind the campaign is putting credit unions front and center with 20-34-year-olds, 93% of which are learning about and gaining access to credit unions on their mobile devices.

The campaign is achieving what’s only been talked about for years – elevating the credit union brand and opening consumers’ eyes to credit unions. As the consumer’s journey changes, so does our campaign. We are always innovating, offering new tools and features to connect credit unions more directly to consumers who have engaged with the campaign. Ultimately, the credit union’s journey to membership and market share begins with the consumer’s journey and the Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union campaign.

Christopher Lorence is Executive Director of CU Awareness, LLC in Washington, D.C.