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THE RETURN

We want to help credit unions attract 1,000,000 new young adult members. We're off to a great start—there are now more than 60,000 young adult relationships associated with Young & Free!

To demonstrate the impact that Young & Free has had at our partner credit unions, we've included results below for our smallest and largest credit unions.

Listerhill Credit Union

At $420 million in assets, Listerhill may be the smallest participating credit union, but that has certainly not stopped it from achieving amazing account growth since launching Young & Free Alabama in the Fall of 2009! Shown below are Listerhill's results over the first 13 months.

Servus Credit Union

At $10 billion in assets, Servus is Canada's third largest credit union and the largest Young & Free credit union. In 2009, Servus was formed by the merger of three credit unions and in March 2010, the Young & Free Chequing Account was rolled out to the entire 100-branch network. The chart below shows the growth in the first eight months since going province-wide. Nearly 19,000 new accounts including over 11,000 for brand new members have been opened in just eight months.

ACT TODAY

The solution »
A proven strategy, a flexible platform, unlimited potential

Your credit union doesn't have to fade into the history books. With Young & Free, your credit union has the potential to not only stop its membership decline, but to add hundreds of brand new young adult members.

AN AWARD-WINNING BRAND

We start by developing a unique supporting brand identity system for each program that includes a complimentary color palette and textures. Each program works independently and collectively. Young & Free is a 100% credit union brand that is built to appeal to the 25-and-under crowd and to work with your credit union's established brand. The combination is both powerful and memorable.

A MARKET-LEADING PRODUCT OFFER

A key to success for all of our partner credit unions is offering compelling products and services that are better than anything else being offered locally. We help name the product and design a unique and complementary logo. We also work with our partner credit unions to develop a share-of-wallet strategy and product bundling options that work with the credit union's existing electronic capabilities.

AN INTEGRATED WEB PRESENCE

Each Young & Free program is showcased on our website platform that has a proven combination of design, messaging, navigation and participatory tools to attract applicants and visitors and to keep them involved.

Prior to launch, we write all of the web copy, setup profiles and pages on major social web services and film and produce a launch video starring your CEO. It doesn't stop there—once the web presence is launched, we are constantly producing content and interacting with a rapidly growing audience.

A FULL-OUT SEARCH FOR THE VOICE

The goal is to make as big a noise as possible in the local marketplace both on- and off-line. We want as many members of the 25-and-under crowd to know about the Young & Free Spokester search and about your new product offer.

To do this, we create and execute a custom integrated media plan. We incorporate your existing media relationships and we support your local public relations professionals. Our integrated marketing approach and reach into the social media world through a proven online media plan works so well that we find that most Young & Free Spokester applicants are non-credit union members anxious to become members.

WORD-OF-MOUTH ON STEROIDS

Through 24 searches, more than 800 young people have applied to become a Young & Free Spokester. We encourage all of our applicants to run aggressive campaigns to make themselves stand out and to help spread the word.

The applicants drive a ton of traffic to the Young & Free sites. Pictured above are pieces from Darryl LaPlante's winning campaign to become the Young & Free South Carolina Spokester. Beyond the required video and blog post, applicants are constantly tweeting, most create Facebook fan pages and many go above and beyond by creating posters and extra YouTube videos!

This is where the real word-of-mouth power kicks in – multiply Darryl by more than 800 young people spreading the news about our partner credit unions and you get the picture! On Facebook alone, more than 250 fan pages have been created and have attracted more than 100,000 likes.

A WINDOW INTO THE MINDS OF GEN Y

Each of our selected finalists are given the task of creating a video that seeks to answer the question, "What do young people really want from a financial institution?" These three-minute videos give us a glimpse at how the finalists interact as well as offer up some great info. Here is one of our favorites.

THE SEARCH IS JUST THE BEGINNING

With the momentum rolling and the Young & Free Spokesperson in place, it is just the beginning. For the next year, your Young & Free Spokester is in charge of building a community of like-minded young people interested in coming to grips with their finances. Social networking, blogging, making videos and attending events all the while promoting your credit union and your young adult products and services.

“Young & Free Alberta deserved to win. Your application did a great job and just as important, it actually delivered business value. The big companies did too, but your application was more impressive based on the creativity and the results delivered on a limited budget.”

Josh Bernoff
Senior Analyst and Co-author of Groundswell and Empowered
Forrester Research

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