I am thrilled to announce that CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec is back for a third year. We gave the website a total refresh and have made a number of key changes including:
I just got back from a great trip. I attended four very different conferences in four days all in my timezone!
1) IT governance course in Vancouver
I took my first formal course as a new credit union board director. It was an IT governance introductory course offered by CU Source held in Vancouver on the first day of the Credit Union Central of Canada 2012 Canadian Conference for Credit Union Leaders (yes, that is the longest conference title ever). As information technology is now the second largest expenditure at most credit unions – human resources is typically the largest – it's becoming more and more important for board members to have a deeper understanding of what's going on with the technology in place at their credit union.
Take aways: The course was a good overview, if not a little basic. The focus was more about risk mitigation versus using technology to serve members better. I suppose this will always be the case in such a heavily regulated industry, but I couldn't help feeling that the typical, cautious wait-and-see approach contradicts the notion that credit unions are smaller and, therefore, more nimble. Because most credit unions now out source so much of their IT systems, they can't be nimble – they are at the mercy and time lines of large, expensive and slow-moving vendors that have hundreds of financial institutions to service. In Canada, we're starting to see the big banks really take the lead on implementing technology tools like mobile banking and personal financial management. On a positive note, I think a smarter, more connected board is a really good thing and I appreciated the overview.
2) Filene i3 in San Francisco
I was in invited by the Filene Research Institute to be guest at the i3 group presentations. What's i3? "Ideas, innovation and implementation. Filene i3is a work group of innovative, insightful and energetic credit union professionals who have not yet reached the CEO level, but are in a position with substantial responsibility. This creative group reflects diversity in experiences, credit union positions, geography and credit union membership. i3ers strive to be transformational leaders in building the future of credit unions and to create new ideas, innovate and implement for the benefit of the credit union industry."
Eight i3 teams, made up of three to five credit union employees, presented their finished projects to an audience of approximately 75 people.
Take-aways: It was encouraging to see the Filene i3 model in action. The credit union industry is old and largely stuck in its ways, but here is a group of people working hard to disrupt and reinvent the credit union movement from the inside out. There were two expert panels made up of accomplished entrepreneurs, scholars and academics that provided feedback to four groups each. Each expert added insightful advice couched with fairly gentle criticism. The ideas were solid, but not necessarily ground-breaking or fully baked. This is to be expected – i3ers are volunteering time outside of their jobs and day-to-day lives.
3) FinovateSpring in San Francisco
I attended the first day of FinovateSpring. Imagine 63 companies all given seven minutes each to demo their working solution to a crowd of more than 1,200 connected critics. No PowerPoint. No faking it. Here are the words that come to mind. Huge. Intense. Fast-paced. Overwhelming. Impressive. Too much. Future. Innovation. Awesome demos and products. So-so demos and products. Zuckerberg-like, T-shirt-wearing geeks rocking their demos. A few ex-bankers trying to be cool, but instead come off slightly awkward on stage.
Take-aways: Going in, I was nervous for credit unions. I was thinking that I was going to witness enormous disruption aimed at toppling incumbents. This wasn't the case. Instead, what I saw was highly polished companies with amazing software looking for partners, investors, clients and distribution channels. These start-ups are well funded with millions sunk in development and now they are looking for a return. Most were pitching the financial institutions in the crowd to implement their white-label solutions. Here are the best of show winners as determined by audience vote (in alphabetic order):
BehavioSec for its new security layer based on user typing/swiping patterns
BillGuard for its card charge dispute platform, BillGuard FI
Dwolla for its FISync service to enable banks to originate real-time payments
iQuantifi for its new financial planning and advice tools
MoneyDesktop for its PFM platform and integrated "deals"
Personal Capital for its iPhone app and interbank funds transfer
It was good to see a large contingent of credit union people there, thanks, in large part, to Filene.
One sobering note: I was struck by the contrast between the i3 pitches and the Finovate pitches. Finovate is the big leagues. The solutions presented were fully baked and ready for market. You could tell that millions upon millions of dollars had been spent before anyone stepped on stage. The demos showed that the best technology minds in the fintech space are feverishly working at solving big problems. These firms are not regulated and are not stuck in their ways.
This is not a new wake-up call for credit unions – it's the same song I've been singing for years. But what was new for me was how in my face this reality was at Finovate. These solutions are real and they're spectactular! My hope is that credit unions get onboard and partner with the best solutions to offer their members more compelling reasons to stick around. I think Filene is well positioned to facilitate this connection between Silicon Valley and the credit union industry.
4) NCGA Marketing Matters in Portland
For my last stop on my whirlwind Westcoast tour, I was the keynote speaker at the National Cooperative Grocers Association Marketing Matters conference in Portland, Oregon. I did two talks:
The Young & Free Story
Integrated Social Media Marketing
Take-aways: I learned that there are a lot of parallels between credit unions and cooperative grocers. Shared challenges include awareness and understanding, selling member shares, economies of scale and confusion with competitors – community banks for credit unions and Whole Foods and Trader Joe's for cooperative grocery stores. And wouldn't you know it, cooperative grocers are also finding it difficult to attract Gen Y! I attended the reception on day one and it was like being in a credit union parallel universe with such similar conversations!
The highlight was someone telling me, "I can't believe you made me cry about overdraft fees." Ha!
In this International Year of Cooperatives, there seems to be a heightened realization that credit unions are cooperatives and that there is potential for cooperatives of different stripes to work together. This is a good thing.
I ended my second talk with some fun. Check it out (and pardon my shaky iPhone camera work).
I received a Twitter direct message from Matt Hawkins today letting me know there was a mystery video in my Dropbox. Matt does a bunch of freelance video production for us and it turns out that he secretly recruited three of our Young & Free Spokesters to create a special birthday gift for Cheryl Wiens in our office.
Behold the ridiculousness of Lee Taylor in Alabama, Michelle Peterson in New Mexico and Kaylie Dame in Ontario. Nothing to do with money, financial literacy, credit unions or anything really.
Before corporate marketers (including me) took over and commercialized the social web, there was Ze Frank – my creative Internet superhero.
If you need to get up to speed on all things Ze Frank, watch this TED Talk. If you do hit play, you will laugh and cry in the next 18 minutes.
So now that we are in agreement about Ze Frank, you'll be equally excited to learn that Ze has brough back The Show. Along with 3,899 other backers, I donated a little to make this happen. Here's the first episode (warning: language).
This hits home and inspires me. I have so many unfinished ideas that I need to make happen. I'll bet you do too.
I knew my South by Southwest Interactive experience was going to offer more than "How to get more likes on your Facebook page" or "10 tips for better blog writing," but I didn't know how deeply the experience would make me think about the challenges that credit unions are facing and the opportunities that credit unions have in front of them.
It is getting harder and harder to make a noise and stand-out. Everywhere I turned there were start-ups, Internet companies and established brands performing stunts, wearing oversize space suits, flying banners, giving out food and drinks, driving around in buses with live bands on top, and handing out tons of stuff in the form of cards, hats, shirts, posters and passes to exclusive parties (and by exclusive, I mean anybody with a heart beat and a SXSW badge was a VIP). And this was all in the physical world. In the online world, new apps and services where being buzzed about and promoted like mad in a race to become the next SXSW poster child like Twitter and Foursquare.
I found all of this instantly forgettable. I was a nobody at this conference, and yet, I had free food and entertainment every night from companies that I can't remember the names of. Not because I was drinking, but because my eyes, ears and mind where so over stimulated that everything was mashed together.
SXSW is clearly a microcosm on steroids, but it points to that fact that we are inundated with so many marketing messages everyday that we tune out. Even the really interesting stuff can't get through.
The importance of storytelling
A major theme that I took away from my SXSW experience is the important role that storytelling plays in being able to rise above the noise. Ron Shevlin has often said that, "Your brand is the stories your customers tell about you." This couldn't be more true. There were a couple of sessions on this theme that I attended that really pointed to possible ways to break through on an emotional level.
Branded Documentary
Description: Procter & Gamble recently commissioned Flow Nonfiction to create a documentary film capturing one of its signature cause programs: Pantene Beautiful Lengths. PBL has donated over 272,000 ponytails for real-hair wigs to the American Cancer Society, and also generated significant ROI for the brand itself. How and why has the program succeeded in making good on doing good? Through communication innovation, like branded documentary film. Marketers and filmmakers, your union is at hand. Film-driven campaigns are setting a new standard of authenticity and ROI. PR and digital agencies are leveraging branded film assets through interactive, integrated campaigns – building brand platforms and driving user-generated content. Read more about the session.
Here's the film to give you an idea of what this is all about.
Why this matters to credit unions: I believe the challenge of marketing low-end, consumer shampoo would rank right up there with marketing banking in terms of sheer difficulty. Both categories are undifferentiated and not particularly memorable. However, as you can see from this branded documentary example, Proctor & Gamble has not only created a wonderful cause in Pantene Beautiful Lengths, but they've brought it to life with care and dignity in this terrific film. Plus, Pantene has significant built-in distribution channels with a large Facebook and Twitter following, a decent blog, a public relations engine and a significant national advertising budget.
Could credit unions do this? Potentially, but credit unions themselves are not a cause. There are organizations like the National Credit Union Foundation and the Real Solutions program that are involved in creating and capturing meaningful stories. Perhaps this is a place to start.
Whether collectively or individually, credit unions would really have to dig to unearth the deep, meaningful stories within their membership and then have the means and audience to get their branded documentary seen. The filmmaker, David Modigliani, talked about the importance of production value and that the current trend of shaky user-generated video that has become the norm is no match for professional-level production and storytelling. This obviously comes at a significant cost.
A great point made by the panel was that people must connect deeply with your cause and the cause that you are backing must align with what your brand physically delivers in the real world. Plus, there must be a universal climax to the story. In the case of Pantene Beautiful Lengths, it is that cutting moment. The point is not to exploit something like breast cancer and chemotherapy, but to celebrate humanity that transcends blattant marketing. Again, I am unsure if credit unions have a universal "cutting moment," but the session and the branded documentary concept were very intriguing.
Multiplatform stoytelling
Description: While the academics preach of the wonders and promise and “mechanics” of “transmedia” storytelling, there are pioneering producers on the ground really doing it. There are good days and bad. There is money and there is not. And then there are the fans. What does it take to pull off successful multiplatform storytelling?
We are at the birth of a new industry, an inflection point, much like the history of film or radio or television or even the Internet where technology gives rise to a new means to tell stories. It is a time before the “institutionalization” of the multiplatform industry. And just like the history of film or TV the early pioneers are stepping out now and taking a lot of arrows. They are experimenting, learning what works and establishing best practices. They are master storytellers using and in some cases inventing new tools. They have failed and they have succeeded. And these are their stories. Read more about the session.
Why this matters to credit unions: This panel was awesome with four wonderful case studies that were presented. I'll tell you about one called Robot Heart Stories that really points to how much more effective and immersive financial literacy could potentially be for credit unions. Robot Heart Stories is currently being produced by story architect and designer Matt Wieler of Reboot Stories.
Here's the synopsis:
Robot Hearts Stories is an experiential learning project that uses collaboration and creative problem solving to put education directly in the hands of students. Two classrooms, a continent apart, will work together to get a lost robot home, and they will need your help.
The experience begins when a robot crash lands in Montreal and must make her way to LA in order to find her space craft and return home. Two class rooms in underprivileged neighborhoods, one in Montreal (French speaking) and the other in LA (English speaking), used math, science, history, geography and creative writing to help the robot make her way across North America.
At the same time, Robot Hearts Stories extends beyond the classroom, as the project welcomes involvement from a global audience. We need participants of all ages to share their own passions in the form of a creative act involving a robot they can print, customize and document. For each photo or piece of art featuring the robot that is submitted, the “signal strength” of the robot grows stronger and helps her to get back home.
It is the producer's feeling that together they can empower endless creativity and, with the help of a robot, reboot education. It was a wonderful story about a story that's currently being created. Part scripted, part professionally produced, part improv and part user-generated content, it really points to an emersive experience that goes way beyond boring hand outs and Powerpoint.
In this, and the other case studies presented, I saw great storytelling strategies that could be applied to the financial literacy space.
What stories are you writing? What stories are you capturing? What stories are you telling and sharing? Can you use storytelling in a way that cuts through the noise? I think there are a lot of possibilities for credit unions.
I'll continue with more SXSW highlights over the next few days before the memories of SXSW 2012 fade!
In conjunction with our day, we're kicking off a fun seven-day contest. There will be seven videos with seven clues to find and seven $50 iTunes gift cards up for grabs. It'll be fun and you should enter!
Kevin and I are attending SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas for the first time this year. It's been on my conference bucket list for at least four years and I am glad to be able to check it off. Being on the other end of the #sxsw Twitter hashtag sucks and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about firsthand.
If you are involved in or follow digital media and technology at all, you've heard of SXSW (South by Southwest). It is an enormous conference with three parts – music, film and interactive. The interactive portion is attended by 20,000+ people, is spread over five days and has more than 2,000 speakers presenting at venues all over downtown Austin. An attendee can only scratch the surface of possible sessions and topics.
As a newby, I decided to mainly take in large auditorium keynote speakers and interviews with successful start-up founders and venture capitalists. I've always been fascinated with the business side of technology and the social web. I often find myself trying to filter my interest in the tech world through my credit union lens.
I've attended two days worth of sessions and thought I would share my highlights. I've included these very cool Ogilvy Notes that were drawn on the spot by artists from ImageThink.net. The session descriptions are quoted directly from the Ogilvy Notes site.
Gamify and Socialize
Description: Bing Gordon knows how to spread magic dust: Look anywhere from Amazon to Zynga. A master of disruption, he's blessed with 20/20 vision into all things gaming and social. Go beyond the buzzwords as the former Electronic Arts executive, legendary video game pioneer, investor in online social gaming company Zynga, and partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers sits down with Bloomberg BusinessWeek reporter Brad Stone to help us understand how both trends are changing the way people engage, behave and consume. Bing explores why gamification and socialization have moved into the mainstream – and into our bloodstream. He explains how these concepts and strategies are relevant to just about everyone, from entrepreneurs to marketing professionals to musicians and students. Bing also discusses how game and social design principles are used to heighten the "wow" quotient in products, services and change consumer experience.
Why this matters to credit unions: Gaming is huge and while gamification is a buzz word that has been hot for a couple of years now, game theory and techniques are starting to permiate everything. From health and fitness to education, technologists are figuring out how to motivate and engage people within their products. With the explosion of mobile smart phones and tablets, financial services is one of the next opportunities to be gamified. Credit unions and the technology vendors they rely on need to get active in this space now.
The Start-Up of You
Description: Renowned entrepreneur and investor Reid Hoffman and entrepreneur/author Ben Casnocha present a new blueprint for managing your career. You will learn the best practices of some of the most successful start-ups on the planet (like PayPal and LinkedIn), and how these strategies can be applied to your career – no matter your industry or job function. You will learn how to launch career plans amid uncertainty; how to change jobs based on what you learn; how to generate breakout opportunities; how to take intelligent risks; how to develop real relationships and build an effective professional network. Most of all, you will learn how to think like an entrepreneur when steering the start-up that is your career.
Why this matters to credit unions: The idea of the Internet offers so much promise and opportunity for everyone, especially young, creative and energetic minds. Generation Y now has poster children like Mark Zuckerberg and other self-made technologists to look up to. They are hyper-connected and are prone to hop from opportunity to opportunity.
Credit unions are going to have a harder and harder time attracting, rewarding and keeping top-level, technology driven employees. Credit unions just aren't sexy or compelling. For those young professionals that do have an interest in innovative financial services firms, credit unions will have to do a lot more to stand out. American Express is all over this conference. If you opened a credit card account today and link it to its new Twitter service, you can go to a private Jay-Z concert Sunday night. And, there are rumors swirling here that Kanye West will perform as well. For real.
This is what credit unions are up against and it's high time that the entire industry take finding the next generation of employees and leaders really seriously. I could be wrong, but I don't think any credit unions sent employees to this conference. That's a shame. The palpable buzz and energy in the air here is amazing. Credit unions need this fresh thinking and energy pronto.
I'll continue with more highlights over the next few days.
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, and to jump on the promotional bandwagon with many others, Currency is conducting a promotion to help us spread the word about our Money Mom program.
Moms are arguably the largest sub-segment of the uber-sized women market. And we think credit unions are wise to consider the mom market for the long-term viability of their businesses. The industry knows that in general credit unions need to get younger, and Money Mom is one program that can help credit unions engage with this important sub-set.
Here’s what’s in it for you: simply tweet this by end of day, March 8:
"I'm tweeting a plug for Money Mom hoping to win $50 for me and $100 for a local women's organization! http://bit.ly/wzATsk #moneymom”
Click this link and it will automatically add the message to your Twitter status box, then you simply click to tweet!
We'll enter all the tweets into a random draw and the lucky winner gets a $50 iTunes gift card and we'll make a $100 donation to a women's organization of the winner's choice. So, it’s a win-win-win situation. :)
What’s your business doing to support women today?
Money Mom marries a winning combination of integrated marketing and content strategy with a local voice and relevant banking products.
A PROVEN RECIPE
Based on our award-winning Young & Free marketing program, Money Mom finds a local mom to be the voice of your credit union. Her job is to connect on- and off-line with the local community to raise awareness and affinity for your credit union.
Our first Money Mom program was launched over two years ago with Seattle's Verity Credit Union as Verity Mom. We've helped Verity find two amazing Mommy Bloggers who have done a tremendous job connecting and building awareness for the credit union. At launch, Verity's average age of a new members was 39, but after just 12 months of running the program in conjunction with a rewards checking account, the average age of a new member dropped to 36!
"We wanted to capture the hearts and minds of the next generation. The best way to do that is by pleasing their moms. Moms make most of the spending decisions in a family and they hold the most influence over where their children will eventually do their banking. We look at this as a multi-generational strategy."
Shari Storm Senior Vice President Verity Credit Union
With this great success under our belt, we've decided to package this program and offer it to other non-competing credit unions.
KEY DIFFERENCES
Beyond targeting a different segment, there are a couple other key distinctions between Young & Free and Money Mom:
Each Money Mom program will carry its own unique name instead of all being under one master brand.
We recognize that moms have tons to juggle, so the Money Mom position is part-time, whereas the Young & Free Spokester position is full-time.
Mike Lawson of CUbroadcast recently interviewed Verity's Melina Young about the Verity Mom program. Verity is a tremendous partner and supporter of the program.
Sandy Pitkethly has been promoted to Vice President, Marketing! Sandy is now in charge of new business development and will be working with me on overall strategy and direction for Currency and our marketing programs. Our Program Directors, Michael, Kate and Cheryl, will report to Sandy.
Since joining Currency in October 2007, Sandy has been a key team member and, in this new role, I am sure she will continue to grow and flourish.
Congratulations Sandy! Please join me in wishing her continued success at Currency.
Tim McAlpine
