YES Live: Your credit union needs a spokester

Kim Crockett’s guiding principle is very simple. “Generation Y is not a passing fad. Gen Y will drive online banking growth.”

Crockett, manager of Young and Free, for Servus (formerly Common Wealth) Credit Union, a $10 billion credit union based in Lloydminister, Alberta, Canada, was heavily been involved in the now-famous Young & Free Alberta Campaign, a marketing program to launch a free checking account for young adults.

After a little more than one year, the effort has drawn more than 3,000 accounts and $5,000,000 non-interest-bearing deposits.

Among Crockett’s insights:

• To reach young people, you have to go where they live, which is online. Example, Diggnation, a weekly tech/web culture show, has 400,000 subscribers, comparable to the number of daily visitors to the CNN web site.

• Innovation requires trust and a leap of faith. As Crockett puts it, “Young & Free is an ongoing beta test. There was not a strong business case for launch.” Elements in favor included tightly a defined target group (19-to-25 years old), an already recognizable brand, and senior management involvement,

• Rethink the three-month promotional campaign. Young & Free selects a spokesperson (dubbed “spokester”) for a one-year appointment through online competitions. (Here’s a history-of video.)

• Give young people freedom and resources and they will respond with amazing creativity. Y&F spokespeople are hired to blog several times a week, with little more than general guidelines. They respond with lively communications that cover subjects from gas prices to popular movies, and include audio, video, and artwork.

• Ask for permission to get involved in the lives of young people. The strength of social media like Diggnation is that they solicit feedback from their audiences. Y&F asks for email addresses and engages in two-way communication with its primary target market. Servus CU plans to continually mine the relationships Young & Free has created for information about serving members under age 25.

According to Crockett, the greatest challenge that credit unions face in serving 18-to-30s is “our tendency to rely on the products and service delivery methods we have used for years. Young adults have different needs and service delivery preferences than the generation before them and we will need to address those needs on their terms. We need to intentionally try to be different.”

Crockett urges credits unions to keep the following guidelines in mind as they plan to reach out to young adults:

1. Gen Y is accustomed to being connected with their their friends and their interests. They can plug into people and activities almost instantly. Credit unions should look to become part of their conversation. Create opportunities for an open dialogue between you and your younger members.

2. Entertain first and then educate. Trust is vital and it needs to be achieved by respecting their world. Your side of the dialogue should be entertaining and reflect openness, honesty and integrity. When you’ve gained Gen Y’s trust, you have a much better chance to provide education and bring young members into the credit union fold for financial services.

IMHO: Making young people feel welcome at and in your credit union is the most important step in rejuvenating your credit union’s membership. Putting that message front and center will make your marketing efforts more forcerful and effective.
For useful marketing conversations and ideas, Crockett recommends Currency Marketing.