A major part of Listerhill's on-going growth strategy centers around building and nurturing its reputation with the students at the University of Northern Alabama campus in Florence. To further this goal, Listerhill recently opened a UNA campus branch at staffed with students who got the job through a recruiting contest.
It's through these efforts and long-term relationship building that they were able to pull off this amazing Young & Free Flashmob yesterday. Check it out!
The marketing team at Listerhill may be small, but they are mighty! This is an excellent example of low-cost guerilla and word-of-mouth marketing.
A hat tip must go to Innovations Credit Union for orchestrating the first credit union Flashmob and providing the inspiration for the T-shirt reveal at the end.
Last September, I attempted to write 30 articles in 30 days detailing the things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader. I got to 22 and then proceeded to be buried by work for the next few months. I hate leaving things unfinished, so I'm going to get this list done over the next little while!
Thing 23 of 30: Hire an Internet celebrity to promote your credit union
The concept of a celebrity spokesperson is one of the oldest marketing concepts. The reason this marketing strategy is still around is because it works. People relate to people not companies or products.
Most credit unions likely haven't considered hiring a celebrity pitchman because of the huge talent cost and the additional high cost of placing ads on TV.
Warning: Some of the videos created by the above personalities may not be safe for work and will likely leave you scratching your head, but trust me, these and other popular video creators generate hundreds of millions of video views. And many of these folks have transitioned to promoting companies and products.
I know you are questioning my sanity, but stay with me. I first wrote about my favorite web celebs Rhett and Link almost two years ago when I discovered that they had been hired to promote Alka Seltzer. The Great American Road Trip campaign was awesome, but I think that their latest campaign is even more brilliant. It's called I Love Local Commercials. Microbilt, a technology company specializing in small business software, has hired Rhett and Link to produce free commercials for companies across the US. Read the FAQs for the low down.
Well last week, they debuted their latest creation, a 90-second web commercial for Bucks First Federal Credit Union in Pennsylvania.
After just five days, this video is now the most watched credit-union-related video of all time with more than 160,000 views. In fact, a companion behind-the-scenes video also has more than 130,000 views!
So before you dismiss this idea, why not do some research to see if there is a popular web celeb in your backyard that would be interested in helping you promote your credit union? If I were a credit union leader, I know I would! It could be a very affordable and effective way to get the word out.
Many credit unions are trying to figure out how to best create a presence within the walled-garden-of-promise that is Facebook. The most popular approach is to set up a free page and hope people find and become fans of your page.
These credit union pages have attracted a range of fans from a dozen to perhaps a hundred fans. The most I have seen is our Young & Free Alberta page with 231 fans. And I'll admit that about half of those are credit union folks. There are likely credit unions with more fans than that, but it still seems pretty paltry considering that Facebook now has more than 100 million members.
But what if there was a better way to build a presence in Facebook?
I have been watching a really interesting and really effective by-product of the Young & Free Alberta and Young & Free Texas spokesperson searches this year. The proliferation of campaign-specific Facebook groups by spokesperson applicants.
DeAndre' in Texas started the trend and between the two competitions there are now 10 Young & Free Facebook groups that I know of. And the member numbers are growing like wildfire. Here are the member numbers at the time of writing this post.
That's 1,264 young people that have now been exposed to Common Wealth Credit Union and TDECU through unsolicited third-party endorsements within the last three weeks.
But these aren't real credit union fans!
Fair enough. Many of these groups will fade away as quickly as they appeared when we shortlist for the voting stage (today in Texas, next Friday in Alberta), but I would argue that the real value lies in what you do with the momentary attention. Most Facebook pages result in a bunch of credit union employees and industry peers becoming fans and little more.
These unsponsored, spontaneous Facebook groups have resulted in the biggest new account opening month for Young & Free Alberta since we started and a record amount of site traffic and blog comments on both sites over the last few weeks.
Another way we have been able to capitalize on this influx of traffic is by adding a simple question to all of the forms on the sites, including the blog comment form. We simply ask: "Would you like to receive e-updates and the chance to win great prizes?"
More than 75% of form submissions are opting into our e-mail lists. We have grown our Alberta list by nearly 900% in the last two months. These are young people giving us permission to open a dialogue with them in their in-box.
I talk a lot about being more blatant with your social media activity and asking for visitors to engage with your credit union and that you should not be afraid to seek opportunities to ask for the sale. Here is living proof that you can mix social media and word-of-mouth advertising with commerce and have it be authentic and very effective.
The cool thing is that this was not our idea or the credit unions' ideas. It just happened naturally. Pretty exciting stuff don't you think? If you have other ways that your credit union has been effective within Facebook, please add them to the comments.
By keeping tabs on what is being said on-line about its products, Electronic Arts picked up on a user-generated YouTube video that demonstrated a glitch in its Tiger Woods 2008 video game. For the release of the 2009 version of the game they produced this new commercial.
A fan of the video game Tiger Woods 08 posted a YouTube video highlighting a "glitch" in the video that enabled the Tiger Woods character to walk and golf on water—dubbed the "Jesus Shot." In response, and as a promotion for the Tiger Woods 09 game, game creators Electronic Arts and Woods posted a video that shows the real-life Woods taking that very same shot. The video's message: "It's not a glitch. He's just that good." It's a great example of the good ideas that can come from keeping a pulse on what people are saying about you and your brand online.
EA took a possible negative and made it into a huge positive. Well done.
This is quite possible the strangest credit union marketing campaign I have ever seen. The Credit Unions of Washington State have banned together to hire Carl Weathers to wax on about change. The actor is most famous for his role as Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies. Watch the videos on the Change is Beautiful microsite to see what I am talking about.
After viewing all of the videos, I honestly don't know if this one is weird-good or just weird-weird. What I do know is that it is different and that the Credit Unions of Washington should be congratulated for sticking their necks out there. The fact that this creative made it through a committee environment is very admirable, if not downright unbelievable. Approving edgy work takes collective courage!
I have a couple of easy suggestions that might make the campaign more successful.
Suggestion 1: Embed videos from a video sharing site like YouTube, Vimeo or Viddler rather than locking the videos down in a closed player. This choice to block others from discovering the videos randomly or sharing the videos on their own websites or blogs will limit the campaign's chances of gaining widespread popularity (I've been told I shouldn't use the V word). Perhaps Mr. Weathers contract didn't permit this type of usage.
Suggestion 2: Since this campaign is designed to get people talking, why not let them talk? Include a simple mechanism for people to post comments or their own Change is Beautiful stories.
Here is some more background information on the thinking behind the campaign. Will this oddball approach be successful? It has garnered some positive local media coverage, but time will tell if Apollo really fairs better against the bank world than he did against Rocky Balboa.
Other than one comment from a slightly ticked Morriss—because I used the word viral 10 times—my last post about YouTube Fred didn't get any real dialogue going. Perhaps its because no one really saw the potential of hiring a goofy Internet star to represent their credit union. Fair enough.
But before I move on to another topic, I wanted to further explore this new trend of employing self-made YouTube celebrities as product pitchmen. Enter the Alka-Seltzer Great American Road Trip starring Internet sensations Rhett and Link.
Let's put my fascination with social media and weird Internet memes aside for a moment and look at the smart marketing strategy at work in this example. Alka Seltzer is a tired old brand that Bayer Healthcare is looking to reinvent and introduce to a new generation. Credit unions find themselves in this same situation.
At the core of the Great American Road Trip is a very simple concept. Alka Seltzer is ideal for calming the type of upset stomach that one might get from over indulging in rich, deep-fried road-trip cuisine. To prove the point, Bayer has hired two proven Internet stars to document their road trip across America this summer. In the process, Rhett and Link are raising brand awareness for Alka Seltzer and likely selling some product along the way.
Here are my take aways:
Entertain first
Educate second
Create a story
Use free online channels
Show up where your audience is
Bring people back for more
I hadn't thought of Alka Seltzer in years. Now, I can't get enough of this site. Who knows, maybe I'll even buy some Alka Seltzer if I get a stomach ache this summer!
This particular video is my favorite. I'll get off this YouTube celebrity track for awhile and move onto something else.
Exhibit A: Zipit Wireless. Zipit offers an all-in-one wireless messenging device—kind of a like an inexpensive Blackberry for kids. Billed as the ultimate texting device, the Zipit Z2 is sold through major retailers like Target and Best Buy for under $50.
Exhibit B:Fred. Fred is a bonifide YouTube viral video sensation. His extremely silly videos get viewed millions and millions of times. This video, for example, was uploaded just two weeks ago and has been viewed more than 3 million times. Fred's collection of videos have been viewed more than 25 million times. Some of his videos have more than 35,000 text comments.
What's interesting is that Fred is now sporting a Zipit Z2 device in his videos. Zipit and its LA-based ad agency, WOO, have brokered an endorsement deal with Fred. Fred even has his own Zipit microsite.
Marketers world-wide are seaking viral. The problem is, viral is nearly impossible to create. Viral just happens. What makes one video go viral doesn't necessarily make another video go viral.
Zipit and WOO have recognized that viral marketing can't necessarily be manufactured from within an ad agency and have, instead, attached the Zipit brand to a proven viral entity.
A few questions for credit unions seeking younger members to consider:
Is viral marketing a goal for your credit union? If so, why?
Would sponsoring a proven YouTube star work for a credit union?
Could this type of approach increase membership?
I can totally see the brand connection between Zipit and Fred. The device is cool and it is specifically designed for young people.
Could a credit union pull this off? Considering that most YouTube 'stars' are slightly offbeat characters, it would take a credit union with a slightly offbeat brand to have any type of alignment.
Most credit unions are conservative organizations that are very concerned with portraying a stable, trustworthy image to their membership. Someone like Fred might be a stretch, but it sure would be fun to watch!
Tim McAlpine
