Currency Marketing

Living Young & Free Show 007: Financial Horror Stories, Halloween Costumes on the Cheap and Raising Your Credit From the Dead

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:01:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

Welcome to the special Living Young & Free Halloween edition! Josh from South Carolina has a faceless fill in interview people about their financial horror stories, Cheryl concocts original costumes for less than $10 and Myles from Alberta raises his credit card from the dead. DeAndre' from Texas is eerily missing, but everything should be fine. Right?*

You can also download all of the episode as a podcast from iTunes.

Enjoy!

*DeAndre' has been super busy with the launch of the 2009 Young & Free Texas Spokesperson search and had to sit this episode out.

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Young & Free Alberta launches Cash In With Your Camcorder video contest

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:31:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

Our founding Young & Free partner, Alberta's Servus Credit Union, has just launched an exciting new promotion called Cash In With Your Camcorder. With our help, Servus is asking young adults to create a 30-second commercial that shows why the Young & Free Chequing Account rocks.

The first place winner will receive $2,000 cash and the second place winner will receive $1,000! Plus, the winning commercials may be used in future advertising!

Here are just some of the pieces of the campaign

Young & Free Alberta microsite transformed for the contest

Video: Myles introduced the Cash In With Your Camcorder video contest

Clockwise from top left: Online banner ads, staff information sheets, wobblers, pamphlets, Facebook ad and mini posters

The Cash In With Your Camcorder video contest provides yet another way for young people to participate in Young & Free in a fun and interactive way. It's a great complement to the Spokester search and will allow more creative young adults to show their talents.

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Would you, could you take DeAndre's job? Young & Free Texas launches its year two search

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:57:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

It's time to look for DeAndre' Upshaw's replacement in Texas. His one-year term as the Young & Free Texas Spokesperson is coming to an end. To ensure that we find a worthy successor, TDECU has launched a fully integrated campaign throughout its marketplace in Texas.

Here are just some of the pieces of the campaign

Young & Free Texas microsite transformed for the search phase

Video: Would You Could You Take My Job?

Clockwise from top left: Facebook ads, print ads, staff information sheets and billboards

It's both an exciting and nerve-racking time since DeAndre' has set the bar exceptionally high. Here are some impressive DeAndre' stats to date:

265 blog posts created
57 videos produced

During the relaunch of the Young & Free sites, we created a tips and tools section on each site. Within this section is a compilation of all of the Young & Free Spokesters money-related blog posts. Take a look here to see just how many well-researched and very helpful articles and videos that DeAndre' has produced over the past 10 months. DeAndre's body of work as the Young & Free Texas Spokesperson is phenomenal. How he produced all of this while completing his senior year at Baylor University is beyond me!

DeAndre' will continue on to the end of the search phase in mid-December and continue to crank out the awesome content that he has spoiled us with.

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Interview featured on The Financial Brand today

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:43:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

Jeffry Pilcher interviewed me recently (back and forth in e-mail form) and he just published the article today. I gave my thoughts on integrated social media marketing. Please take a read and leave a comment!

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If the pistachio industry can do it, can't credit unions?

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:37:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

The discussion of a national brand campaign for the US credit union industry was rekindled yet again. First on Mary Arnold's blog post on the CUES Skybox, then on Ron Shevlin's Marketing Tea Party blog and the conversation continues on Morriss' Partee blog posts about a whether a third-party vendor should be given free reign to fill the bill.

Then I learned about this edgy new national brand campaign from the pistachio industry. There must be a full moon.

This is from an article from Megan Angelo on the Wallet Pop blog.

"The pistachio industry wants to get nut lovers' minds off salmonella and onto sex. Pistachios took a big publicity hit last year when 2 million pounds of the greenish nut had to be recalled due to salmonella contamination.

Now, as USA Today reports, the industry is striking back with a grabby campaign that casts the pistachio alongside winking innuendos ("Mobsters do it with muscle") and C-list celebrities like Adrienne Curry, Chris Knight and the curiously ubiquitous Levi Johnston. (One slightly creepy short stars the five-year-old Denny quintuplets hopping around on bouncy balls as the voice over proclaims that "Quintuplets do it with balance."

Here is the microsite:

The Get Crackin' campaign is extensive and extremely well funded—apparently to the tune of $15 million. It has a user-generated video contest and multiple provoking TV spots. For example:

Jeffry Pilcher has this to say on Ron's blog about a national credit union brand campaign:

"One thing is for certain, and that is the credit union industry has a huge problem. Research has proven over and over that people don’t know what credit unions are, therefore people don’t consider credit unions as viable financial alternatives. A solution should be found for this problem, whatever name you want to give it. It seems as if a lot of people summarily dismiss the problem because they don’t like the proposed solution (brand campaign)."

Morriss Partee offered this counterpoint:

"I think a common misconception that many credit union professionals and board members hold is that the “Got Milk” campaign was successful. Yes, there was a lot of awareness for the CAMPAIGN; celebrities lined up to be in it…. but the deep dark secret is that it didn’t actually increase SALES of MILK. In fact, it worked brilliantly to commoditize milk, driving many smaller dairy farmers to either go out of business or figure out a way to differentiate themselves DESPITE THE NATIONAL BRANDING CAMPAIGN. Anyone want an additional battle to fight right now? No? No takers?"

CUNA ran an under-the-radar contest last year to see what the crowd could come up with. Speaking of Jeffry Pilcher, his entry won.

It's a good ad and I'm sure there are plenty more out there that would help promote the credit union difference.

Begs the question: If a nut that nobody thinks about can pull an industry together, shouldn't credit unions? I'm just a credit union fan from Canada. What the heck do I know?

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Living Young & Free Show 006: Checking and Savings Accounts, Gourmet Meals on the Cheap and the Online Banking Song

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:04:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

Our host Cheryl welcomes Young & Free Alabama to the Young & Free family, DeAndre' from Texas breaks down the difference between savings and checking accounts, Josh from South Carolina cooks a gourmet meal on the cheap and Myles from Alberta is singing about the benefits of online banking.

You can also download all of the episode as a podcast from iTunes. Enjoy!

P.S. You must watch the last segment—Myles' Online Banking Song is made of awesome.

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22 days has September?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:08:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

I set a pretty audacious goal for myself—write 30 things in 30 days. I published 22 things. Not bad.

Truth be told, I haven't set enough time aside to blog in 2009 and the tweet above from the author of the Financial Brand, Jeffry Pilcher, gave me the kick start I needed to reinvest in the Currency blog.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but over the past month Morriss Partee has been blogging more, Matt Dean has posting some great stuff on Open Source CU after an almost two-year hiatus, and low and behold, Ron Shevlin has started a new blog!

Thanks Jeffry.

I've enjoyed spending time thinking more deeply than is possible in 140 characters! I will push the missing eight posts out over the next couple of weeks—I need to slow down a little.

I have to agree with Matt Davis, "I guess CU blogs aren't dead."

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Thing 22 of 30: act like there is no tomorrow

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:02:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.

Thing 22: act like there is no tomorrow

Have you noticed that things are changing pretty fast? That the status quo gets you nowhere? Did you know that technology is changing everything and putting the consumer in charge of every facet of their lives?

Established service industries are being turned on their heads. Here's a few examples:

The Internet has all but killed the printed daily newspaper business. The publishing titans did not see that coming.
The iTunes Store has changed the way consumers buy music. Record stores are gone. iTunes is now the #1 music retailer in the world. It has no physical presence and it did not exist five years ago. The recording industry did not see that coming.
Netflix is doing the same thing to the movie rental business. I'll bet Blockbuster did not see that coming.
Tivo has changed the way we consume television. The traditional 'Madison Avenue' ad agencies did not see that coming and have yet to adapt from the 30-second (skippable) spot mentality.
The Amazon Kindle is attempting to do the same thing to the book publishing industry. I'll bet the print industry didn't see that coming.

If anything, history repeats itself. Old business models don't last forever. It's ironic that credit unions are celebrating 100 years of history. And in all of this celebration of the past, there is very little talk of the future.

There was an event held in New York yesterday called Finovate2009. About 50 companies gave seven-minute demos of their products.

That's about 50 companies all thinking and doing something about the future. About 50 companies all trying to be the iTunes that sets the traditional banking industry on its head. Where were the credit unions? Here is a Twitter search to read the real-time buzz from yesterday.

The irony of Finovate 2009 was that the best of show winner was Kasasa. (read Kasasa: A third-party national checking brand on the Financial Brand for a really good overview). Kasasa is reinventing the most basic of financial products—the checking account. The very domain of the credit union. What they have done is revolutionary. And simple. And awesome.

If I was the leader of a credit union, I would remember the past but I would spend way more time thinking about the future and less time sitting on our laurels.

UPDATE: Morriss Partee added a video link in the comments. It proves the point so well, that I have embedded it below.

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Thing 21 of 30: implement a white-label PFM

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:00:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.

Thing 21: implement a white-label PFM

Just as soon as we replaced that nasty-10-year-old website at my fictitious credit union, I would jump straight to implementing a personal financial management tool (PFM) inside my credit union's online banking site.

If this PFM term is new to you, imagine the desktop software Quicken or Microsoft Money sitting right inside your online banking system with robust budgeting and tagging (categorization of income and expenses) right there, without requiring your members to download or manually enter transaction data.

Sound impossible? Or futuristic? Not only is it possible and available right now, there are a number of vendors clamoring to offer this service to banks and credit unions.

Web service firms like Mint.com have been doing a bang-up job of sucking the data right out of your credit union online banking sites and giving consumers a slick representation of all of their accounts at various financial institutions for a while now.

You can either live with this reality or fight back with a white-label PFM that sits right inside your online banking system and gives your members everything they need without having to rely on a third-party.

I have personal experience with the public Wesabe service, and I would give it five out of five stars. Wesabe is now offering a white-label version called Springboard. In addition, I know of a number of others worth checking out. Jwaala MoneyTracker, Geezeo, FinanceWorks from Digital Insights and a local Canadian company, PennyMinder. I am sure there are more, but this will give you a good start.

I know in Canada, many credit unions are on a standardized online banking system and having a PFM may not be available to you. You need to pressure your provider to put it on their roadmap pronto. There is a tremendous opportunity for credit unions to differentiate themselves if they can implement a robust PFM solution before their bank competitors.

If you believe this is a passing fad for a niche audience, ask yourself, "Why did Intuit, the makers of Quicken, QuickBooks and QuickTax, just pay $170 million for Mint.com?"

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Thing 20 of 30: take a Filene open-source idea and run with it

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:01:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.

Thing 20: take a Filene open-source idea and run with it

It's tough to come up with big ideas on your own. That's where the Filene Research Institute can help. Its mission is to support research efforts that will ultimately enhance the well-being of consumers and assist credit unions in adapting to rapidly changing economic, legal and social environments.

Basically, Filene is charged with coming up with big ideas and then setting them free for credit unions to implement. One of the ways that they do this is through the work of the i3 groups. Filene i3 is made up of a bunch of smart and creative credit union professionals that work to bring ideas to life. These small groups dream up innovative product and promotional ideas, create business cases and prototypes and ultimately package these ideas up for credit unions to take and implement.

There is big fat list of awesome ideas waiting to be brought to life at your credit union.

If I was a credit union leader, I would join Filene, spend some time pouring over all of the wonderful research and the i3 ideas, pick one or two and bring them to life at our credit union.

In fact, there is a whole laundry list of great Gen Y product ideas that a young group of credit union professionals called the CU Tomorrow group came up with that could help you fulfill 'Thing 19.'

Seriously, this sounds like a no-brainer to me!

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Thing 19 of 30: attract the next generation of credit union members

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:01:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.

Thing 19: attract the next generation of credit union members

You knew this had to be one of my 30 things! As you know, I've been yammering away (on my blog, at conferences and in magazine articles) about the need to attract new Generation Y members.

It's no secret that the median age of a North American is 35 and the median age of a credit union member is 47. This 12-year gap is a serious issue that needs to be attacked head-on or credit unions will find themselves going the way of the record stores (remember them?) and the daily newspaper publishers. Want more scary stats, check out one of my previous posts.

I am happy to say that the message is starting to get through. Thanks to heavyweights CUNA, Callahan & Associates, the Filene Research Institute, PSCU Financial Services and Brass Media, broader attention has been cast on this industry-wide issue.

In addition to our four active Young & Free programs, there are quite a few dedicated credit union Gen Y marketing initiatives up and running. This is a good start and it gets me excited to see that a number of credit unions are really taking this issue seriously. However, the 25 to 30 active initiatives that I follow are just scratching the surface. There are 9,000 credit unions in North America and only about 0.3% have committed to doing something. Yikes!

If I was a credit union leader I would make attracting the next generation of credit union members a major priority and I would plan to do something about it in 2010.

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Thing 18 of 30: lay claim to being first at something

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:01:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.

Thing 18: lay claim to being first at something

The credit union industry is better known for its conversative nature than being a group of pioneering innovators. On one hand, this has allowed credit unions to remain safe and sound in times of trouble, but on the other hand, it has also created a group of undifferentiated vanilla organizations that tend to follow instead of leading.

At my fictitious credit union we would concentrate on being first at something. Something radical and new. Something that no other financial institution has done to date.

An example of this kind of outrageous behaviour is premiering today. St. Louis-based Vantage Credit Union has just become the first financial institution to offer banking through Twitter! Here's the introductory tweet for Vantage's new tweetMyMoney service.

What I love about this innovative first is that people will have two reactions. 1. "Wow, that's awesome!" or 2. "OMG, that's stupid!"*

Here is some info from the simple mobile-friendly landing page:

We're excited to introduce the first-of-its-kind banking service via Twitter, available exclusively to Vantage members! View balances, move money and much more using tweetMyMoney.

Choose to get balances on one or all your deposit accounts
Get your 'last 5s' on one or all deposit accounts: deposits, withdrawals, checks cleared, transactions
See what point-of-sale transactions are holding in your checking account and their dollar amounts
Avoid overdrafts by making transfers from one deposit account to another... on the fly!

Congratulations are in order to the Vantage Credit Union team. I suspect this service will not only be popular with tech-savvy members, it will also attract more new members than producing yet another me-too deposit campaign.

What could you credit union be the first to do? That's the question I would spend time thinking about!

*Actually, those are the two reactions people have about Twitter!

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We helped Listerhill Credit Union launch Young & Free Alabama today!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:01:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

I am excited to unveil Young & Free Alabama for Muscle Shoal's Listerhill Credit Union. I'm so excited because:

Listerhill is the smallest credit union in the smallest market to date to launch Young & Free. Listerhill is just over $400 million in assets. To date, all Young & Free credit unions have been well beyond $1 billion in assets. We feel strongly that credit unions of all sizes can pull Young & Free off provided that they are committed to the concept from the board and executive right down to the front-line staff.
We are working with a team that is so fired up about Young & Free. The team at Listerhill has been terrific to work with. The core team that includes Amber, Kristen, Clay, DeAnna, Joyce, Brad, Debbie, Carolyn, Daryl, Tony and Ivan have championed Young & Free and have really made it their own.
Another Young & Free region is now live and will help in fulfilling our purpose. Alabama, joins Alberta, South Carolina and Texas. Simply put, it is our purpose to help credit unions deepen their relationships with members and to persuade bank customers to become credit union members. We feel that the Young & Free Spokester Challenge has the potential to attract tens of thousands of new members to the credit union movement and Listerhill is another ideal partner.

Here are some of the pieces

Young & Free Alabama microsite

Video: Are you the Voice of Young & Free Alabama?

Clockwise from top left: print ads, staff information kits and billboards

Here's how the program works:

Young adults will visit youngfreealabama.com and fill out an application
Everyone can watch and participate as the applicants are narrowed down to three finalists
Site visitors will vote for the finalist they think should be the winner
The winner will receive a full-time position worth $30,000 per year, a MacBook Pro computer, a Canon HD camcorder and an iPhone
Prizes will be awarded to the other two finalists as well
The winning spokesperson is expected to write four text-based blog posts per week, produce one video per week, produce at least one segment for the Living Young & Free Show per month and attend one event as the spokesperson per month

Sandy and I traveled to Muscle Shoals in July. We had a great time getting to know the Listerhill team and also touring around the area. We learned what a meat and three is, what thousands of cicadas sound like, what 90% humidity feels like and that the people of Alabama are incredibly friendly and helpful!

Please take a moment and visit the Young & Free Alabama microsite.

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BarCampBankBC2: the crystal ball diaries

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:29:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

Today, William Azaroff hosted BarCampBankBC2 at the Vancity head office. The picture above is the inspired view from the boardroom! William has beat me to the punch with a nice recap of BCBBC2, so rather than just a repeat, I am going to give my thoughts on how this event compared to Seattle in 2007 and BC in 2008. I have enjoyed all three and although they could not have been more different, they do share a common theme—interested parties speculating on what the future might bring.

Seattle, July 2007

Being the first in North America, BarCampBankSeattle was shiny and new and full of discovery and optimism. I remember arriving in Seattle early in the morning not knowing at all what to expect. I was there first and found the tiny address numbers on a very nondescript door. I waited for someone to come. This black Suburban pulls up and this young man jumps out swearing a blue streak about the "guy with the chairs and food" falling through. By this time a couple others had arrived and we all helped him lug about 75 folding chairs through dark hallways and up a small elevator into a really cool space. It was an old building that had been converted into open-plan offices. It had creaky hardwood floors and you could tell that during the week the space was inhabited by a tech start-up.

Turns out the young man in the Suburban was Jesse Robbins, the event organizer. About 60 people were there from all over North America and it was the first time that many credit union bloggers met in person. There was a mix of credit union employees, bankers, analysts, technologists and consultants. The discussions were varied and deep and everyone participated. Online friendships were crystalized in real life and the discussions continued well into the evening throughout a dinner that about 20 people attended. There was a subset of people using Twitter at the event and I remember a discussion around what the heck is Twitter and why would anybody use it?

It had a Woodstock vibe and the pervasive crystal-ball theme was how would social technologies affect the financial services industry? There were a number of entrepreneurial people in the room in the midst of innovating and a lot of speculation on how online personal financial managers, peer-to-peer lending and social media would potentially disrupt the financial services industry. I would rate the experience a 10 out of 10. It was exceptional.

Vancouver, September 2008

Gene, William and I organized the first BarCampBank in Canada. The facility was fantastic—it was held at the downtown campus of BCIT, a technical university. About 70 people attended from 10 different provinces and states. Again, it was a melting pot of people. The discussions were more rooted in the realities of the time. We were in the front-end of the financial crisis and everyone was speculating on what would come. There was great discussions about the differences and similarities between the financial marketplace on either side of the Canada-US border and also the differences between banks and credit unions. Social media and technology were still themes, but the discussions had shifted to the real applications versus blue-ocean thinking. The vibe was less entrepreneurial and more practical.

Again the discussions were in depth, well argued and continued well into the evening as about 30 people continued on to dinner. I would rate the experience 8 out of 10. It was great.

Vancouver, September 2009

Gene, William and I envisioned BarCampBankBC2 as a more low key and local event given the economy and the realities of slashed travel and education budgets. We were able to keep the fee to just $10 because of the generosity of Vancity. We had access to the top floor of Vancity's head office. We ended up using the boardroom and a smaller foyer for each concurrent session. There were about 25 in attendance—mostly from the credit union world including credit union executives, technologists and a board member and also a number of vendors that work with credit unions. We had representation from four BC credit unions including Vancity, Westminster Savings, Community Savings and North Shore Credit Union. There were also two people attending from Servus Credit Union in Alberta. Folks from Central 1 and Credit Union Central of Alberta were also there.

I liked that the discussions were rooted in the local realities of one of the most robust credit union marketplaces in the world. BC and Alberta are home to the four largest credit unions in Canada. This also made the discussions quite insular compared to my two previous BarCampBank experiences. Four people from Washington and Oregon had planned to attend, but were unable to make it. There were also at least two representatives from major banks that were unable to make it as well. This was disappointing, because I feel that perspectives from different realities and regions add so much to the discussion.

There were good debates about the future of products, branching and digital marketing. I felt the discussion on digital marketing was particularly good because it included e-mail marketing, social media and search engine optimization all in one discussion rather than the typical segmentation that happens. There is a growing realization that social media is just another vehicle that can enable credit unions to listen and to tell their unique stories. Ed Brett hit the nail on the head when he said (something to this effect), "Until we can say that creating compelling content is one of our core competencies, we are staying away from having a presence on Twitter and Facebook?"

Another good discussion centered around channel strategy. What different roles should our branches and websites play? I was impressed with the depth of William's thinking on this subject. He has clearly spent a lot of time thinking about how the web channel is different than the branch channel and how it should not be treated simply as another branch.

Because all of the credit unions represented at BCBBC2 (and half of the credit unions in Canada for that matter) share the same online website and banking system—Central 1 Credit Union's MemberDirect—the meeting felt more like a user group meeting than a freeform open sharing of big ideas typically associated with an unconference. There were three product folks from Central 1 there—Chloe Morrow, Margarita Lurye and Rene Gourley—who added to the conversation and kept it grounded in reality. This was good and bad. Good that the clients (the credit unions) could ask the vendor (Central 1), "can you guys do that?" And bad that it seemed to cap the big idea generation that I have experienced at previous events.

The vibe was good and everyone enjoyed themselves. It was definitely more low key and local and I was disappointed that it didn't naturally extend into a great dinner with continued discussion. I would rate it 7 out of 10. It was good.

Final thought

During the future of cooperation session, William asked the question, "What if membership to credit unions was optional?" I love this idea. It could really give meat and meaning to the advantages of membership.

The irony of this question hit me on the drive home. The BC credit union system is renowned throughout the world for its cooperation in technology and province-wide marketing. It occurred to me that inter-credit-union cooperation in Canada is mandated unlike the entrepreneurial CUSO environment that has organically sprung up in the US. "What if membership to credit union centrals was optional?" Now that would have made for a great discussion!

P.S. Had Gene Blishen been able to make it, with his Yoda-like comments and wisdom, BCBBC2 would have been exceptional!

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Thing 17 of 30: use Internet video

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:09:00 -0800

By Tim McAlpine

September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.

Thing 17: use Internet video

Heard of YouTube? Of course you have—it's the most popular website for sharing video on the Internet. It's enables you to post, distribute and embed video on your website or blog for free. With no additional infrustructure necessary on your part. There are many credit unions using video—in fact, there are more than 6,900 video tagged with "credit union" on YouTube. This number doesn't include other popular video sharing sites like Vimeo, Blip TV and Viddler.

Obviously, many credit unions are using video to their advantage, but there are thousands and thousands that are not. If I was a credit union leader, I would use Internet video to communicate our spirit, to promote and demostrate our products and services, to empower our employees, to celebrate our member stories, to train our employees and to give our credit union an approachable personality.

If Mount Lehman Credit Union can buy its 11-employees Flip Mino camcorders, so can you.

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