Small is beautiful: Here's my presentation from the CUES Annual Convention in Cancun today

Yesterday, I was in New York and today I am speaking at the CUES Annual Convention in Cancun, Mexico. Crazy!

This is the same presentation that I gave at the CUES West AGM in Ottawa in May. I will have two repeated 75 minute sessions to talk about why I feel that credit unions can remain small and beautiful. The presentation is a mix of all of my passions: I believe that small credit unions can combine a compelling brand, inexpensive marketing and low-cost and free social media to differentiate themselves in their marketplace.

Rather than reupload the file for Cancun with a different title page, I will direct participants here to download the slides.

Small is beautiful. Your credit union can remain small and successful

June 24, 2008  |  CUES Annual Convention  |  Cancun, Mexico

Presentation overview

With the tidal wave of mergers and consolidation within the Canadian and US credit union systems, it seems as though getting bigger is the only way for credit unions to survive. However, there are fine examples of very successful credit unions that are bucking the trend and purposefully remaining small. Tim McAlpine will explore how these credit unions are using marketing, technology and good old-fashioned member advocacy to not only remain small, but also continue to be viable and successful.

Thanks to the CUES Conference gang including Sara Dyer and Christopher Stevenson for helping me with the arrangements and bring me to Mexico!

Tim

Small is beautiful: Here's my presentation from the CUES West AGM in Ottawa today

I spoke earlier today at the CUES West AGM in Ottawa, Ontario.

I had 45 minutes to talk about why I feel that credit unions can remain small and beautiful. The presentation is a mix of all of my passions: I believe that small credit unions can combine a compelling brand, inexpensive marketing and low-cost and free social media to differentiate themselves in their marketplace.

I had lunch a couple of weeks ago with Gene Blishen to pick his brain on the business realities facing today's small credit unions and I solicited help from my blog readers to help me with some real-world examples. Thanks to everyone who helped with my presentation today! I really appreciate it.

This is the first time that I have spoken about small credit unions. I will continue to refine my talk in preparation for my presentation in June at the CUES AGM in Cancun.

Small is beautiful. Your credit union can remain small and successful.

May 4, 2008  |  CUES West AGM  |  Ottawa, Ontario

Presentation overview

With the tidal wave of mergers and consolidation within the Canadian and US credit union systems, it seems as though getting bigger is the only way for credit unions to survive. However, there are fine examples of very successful credit unions that are bucking the trend and purposefully remaining small. Tim McAlpine will explore how these credit unions are using marketing, technology and good old-fashioned member advocacy to not only remain small, but also continue to be viable and successful.

Thanks to the CUES West Chair Dave Craigan for inviting me and to Catherine Robertson from CUES for helping me with the arrangements.

Tim

I need some wisdom from the crowd. What do you have to say about small credit unions?

I have two upcoming presentations that I am giving at CUES Conferences on the topic of small credit union success. The first is at the CUES Canada West meeting in Ottawa on May 4 and the second is in Cancun on June 24. Here is the official description of my presentation.

Small is beautiful. Your credit union can remain small and successful

With the tidal wave of mergers and consolidation within the Canadian and US credit union systems, it seems as though getting bigger is the only way for credit unions to survive. However, there are fine examples of very successful credit unions that are bucking the trend and purposefully remaining small. Tim McAlpine will explore how these credit unions are using marketing, technology and good old-fashioned member advocacy to not only remain small, but also continue to be viable and successful.

I have a good outline of what I am going to talk about, but I need some additional examples from throughout North America to prove my case in these four areas.

1. Small credit unions with a differentiated and relevant brand
2. Small credit unions marketing with a modest budget
3. Small credit unions mastering social media
4. Small credit unions making meaningful member connections

Now its over to you, my Internet friends: please fill in the holes with awesome examples from your neck of the woods. I will be sure to give you credit in my presentations. Please post your example in the comments or e-mail me at tmcalpine at currencymarketing dot ca.

UPDATE: I define a small credit union as having five branches or less and 20,000 members or less. Assets are a very hard measure to go by because Canadian credit unions can have up to four times the assets of a similar member-sized US credit union.

Thanks in advance!

Tim

Podcast 01: Credit Union Innovator Gene Blishen

Currency now has a podcast! It's called Credit Union Innovators and you can listen by streaming audio here on the blog or you can subscribe to it in iTunes and listen on your iPod.

The format of this and future episodes will be interviews and conversations with people that are doing good things for the credit union movement. Credit union leaders and employees and partners to the movement including vendors, technologists, strategists, designers, specialists, marketers, developers, speakers and members. Anyone with passion for the credit union movement and with something to say.

I have met so many great people involved in the credit union world and want you to get to know them too.

First up is my good friend and long-time client, Gene Blishen. Gene is the General Manager of Mount Lehman Credit Union located in Mount Lehman, British Columbia, Canada. It is a small community just north of Abbotsford and about 45 minutes east of Vancouver.

Mount Lehman Credit Union has 1,800 members and 10 employees and bucks every credit union rule! Who says you can't be small and innovative?

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Some links to get to know Gene even better

+ Gene's personal blog
+ Gene's Flickr photos
+ Mount Lehman's website
+ Mount Lehman's blog
+ Mount Lehman's YouTube channel

Gene is doing great work and is a credit union innovator to the core. Get to know him.

Fast facts about Gene

• Live? Burnaby, BC
• Height? 188 cm
• Favorite color? Green
• Favorite computer? Mac
• Most embarrassing thing on a Trans-Atlantic flight? Sitting beside a rugby team

Looking for innovators

If you know a credit union innovator who I should interview, please e-mail me at tmcalpine at currencymarketing dot ca.

Production notes

If you are considering producing your own podcasts, here are my production notes. It took a fair amount of digging to figure out a good way to produce these without having to lug around a bunch of gear. I found it really difficult to get clear answers on all this stuff. Hopefully my research can save you some time!

+ Recorded with a M-Audio Microtrack II mobile digital recorder
+ Edited in Audacity
+ Hosted on Evoca
+ Podcast RSS Feed through Feedburner
+ Music is All I Said by Everyday Jones licensed through Creative Commons

Gene actually recommended the Microtrack to me awhile ago—it is a very cool device. Man, that guy knows everything!

I chose Audacity because it is very simple for a non-audio engineer like me and it is free.

I chose Evoca because I can easily embed audio clips on our blog and Evoca also provides an RSS feed for selected files at reasonable cost. And there are some really cool recording options with Skype that will come in handy for future long-distance interviews.

And, finally, after all that, I am using Feedburner to see if anyone actually listens and downloads our podcasts. Having never gone through the process before, I was surprised that both Evoca and iTunes do not track the number of listeners or downloads. Feedburner also helps you put your RSS feed information together properly so your podcast artwork and details display correctly in iTunes and on iPods. The most time-consuming part was getting the feed approved by Apple—it took five days. I guess they were pretty busy with Macworld to worry about me.

I swear, the tangle that is Web 2.0 boggles my mind sometimes. It has been an adventure figuring all of this stuff out. Kind of fun, but mostly painful.

Go easy on me!

My interviewing skills are not at Oprah or Letterman level yet, but I think my first attempt is alright! Hope you enjoy it. Want to really make my day? Write a (positive) review in iTunes!

Tim

Currency Marketing is CUCKOO for credit unions

For the past few weeks we have had a banner at the bottom of our blog that read, "Has Currency gone cuckoo?" Well, we are ready to let you in on our big secret. We are delighted to announce that our latest concept has hatched. What is it you ask? Cuckoo! Amazing stock campaigns for credit unions.

We found ourselves with requests for campaigns from credit unions across the continent. Many of the credit unions were of a smaller scale and found that their budget couldn’t support a customized campaign. Yet they still wanted creative, captivating and engaging marketing. From this Cuckoo was born.

Cuckoo is our way of giving smaller credit unions the tools they need to take a bite out of the big banks!

After a year in the nest our bird is ready to take flight. We are so excited about the launch of Cuckoo and we hope you will be too. Click here to check out our new site. We'd love to hear what you think.

We held a preview at a special party in Banff at the MACU Spring Conference on Thursday night. Here is a video of our road trip. It was a blast. Don't worry, we have kept all of the footage PG!

Are we cuckoo? Absolutely.

Tim

P.S. I am very proud of our team. Everyone has had a hand in bringing Cuckoo to life including Andrew, Bhu, Bob, Bobby, Caleb, Cheryl, Eryn, Irene, Jenn, Julie, Kevin, Kristen, Michael, Nala, Nicole, Peter, Sharon and Trish. I must also give a special thanks to Michelle, who has quarterbacked this project and pushed and pushed to make it better.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the concept and provided valuable input (you know who you are). Also to my family, Jan, Aidan and Elise who have had to put up with looking at me over the back of my laptop screen on many an evening for the past few months!

It is very exciting to see it get off the ground in such fine fashion. Many hours have been spent and the end product is awesome. Thanks everyone! 

Hello world! Currency Marketing has just hatched Cuckoo

I am so excited to announce the birth of our new service—Cuckoo! What's Cuckoo you ask? Cuckoo is a collection of amazing stock marketing campaigns developed for credit unions (and definitely not banks).

But it's so much more than that! I know that by putting professional marketing materials in the hands of smaller independent credit unions, it will help these organizations succeed, one new member at a time.

Cuckoo is an extension of Currency Marketing's core purpose. Simply put, it is our purpose to help credit unions deepen their relationships with members and persuade bank customers to become credit union members.

This is just the beginning—we have big plans for constant improvement and new products and services to help your credit union. I encourage you to sign-up for a free Club Cuckoo membership. There are a number of cool rewards, but the best part is we will send you e-mails one week in advance of new campaigns going live on this site.

Good luck with your next campaign. I sure hope we can help. Take a look around and let me know what you think.

Tim

P.S. I am very proud of our team. Everyone has had a hand in bringing Cuckoo to life including Andrew, Bhu, Bob, Bobby, Caleb, Cheryl, Eryn, Irene, Jenn, Julie, Kevin, Kristen, Michael, Nala, Nicole, Peter, Sharon and Trish. I must also give a special thanks to Michelle, who has quarterbacked this project and pushed and pushed to make it better.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the concept and provided valuable input (you know who you are). Also to my family, Jan, Aidan and Elise who have had to put up with looking at me over the back of my laptop screen on many an evening for the past few months!

It is very exciting to see it get off the ground in such fine fashion. Many hours have been spent and the end product is awesome. Thanks everyone!