Common Wealth Credit Union launches its Young & Free account in highly relevant style
The challenge was to launch a free chequing account for the under 25 group and connect with the youth market in Northern Alberta. But how do you raise brand awareness with members of the seemingly unreachable Generation Y and create excitement and understanding with all 400 staff members?
We named the new product Young & Free and created a fully integrated marketing campaign combined with a spokesperson search to find the voice of Alberta's under 25 crowd. The whole campaign comes to life on a dedicated microsite at YoungFreeAlberta.com.
By bringing this vibrant youth brand to life in a way young people would accept, we positioned Common Wealth as a progressive and transparent financial institution with heart. We embraced the power of the social web by tapping into popular sites like YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter to create an immersive experience where compelling user-generated content takes centre stage.
To drive traffic, we used a combination of public and media relations, traditional media including radio, outdoor, point of purchase and direct mail, and new media including viral messaging and online advertising.
The results
• 63,431 site visits
• 197,529 page views
• 3:14 average visit
• 80,726 YouTube views
• 906 blog comments
• 230 Facebook fans
• 101 Twitter followers
• $179,000 unpaid media
• 2,000,000+ impressions
• 2,316 Y&F accounts
• $3,587,000 new funds
Account openings have been brisk, site traffic has exceeded expectations and media and youth interest in the program has been overwhelming. Since the program launched in October 2007, new account openings have grown by 960% over the same period one year prior in the 19 to 25 year old age group. Traffic and sales have been steady for the entire year even though all supporting traditional media stopped after the first two months of the program.
On October 1, 2007, Common Wealth Credit Union launched the Young & Free Spokesperson search.
Jeff Mulligan's original video
Jeff's bloopers
From October 1 to November 16, 2007, 11 incredible young people answered the call. We where
overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of very qualified applicants. Take some time and view the
original submissions—they are fantastic!
Here is a six-minute video that captures Larissa's 388,800 minutes on the job!
The spokesperson search
St. Albert, Alberta's Larissa Walkiw submitted her application on October 26, 2007. We were immediately struck by her imagination and creativity. It was clear from the beginning that this was a talented young woman that could represent Alberta's 25 and under crowd very well.
By the time the dust had settled, Larissa was the clear winner with 49% of the votes. On December 6, 2007, Common Wealth Credit Union's Kim Crockett drove to the Walkiw residence and surprised Larissa with the offer to become the Young & Free Spokesman. She was quick to accept and to correct Kim by accepting the job of Young & Free Spokesgirl!
Larissa's year (well nine months)
The hard work began on January 1, 2008 when Larissa officially started her job. Her Happy New Year video established a high benchmark.
Larissa's role as the Y&F Spokesperson consisted of writing five blog posts including one video blog every single week! Over the course of the next nine months, Larissa wrote more than 175 blog posts brimming with wit, creativity and thought-provoking content.
Every text blog post included one of her quirky original illustrations.
Larissa's more than 40 high-quality videos have attracted in excess of 80,000 views to date. An amazing fact is that every video was conceived, written, filmed and edited by Larissa with no outside assistance.
But of course the video that put Young & Free Alberta on the map was Larissa's early January release of The Difference Between Banks and Credit Unions Part 1. This video has been viewed more than 30,000 times by people from every corner of the globe. It has been embedded on more than 30 credit union industry blogs and was featured on the World Council of Credit Unions' homepage.
"How is it, that in the 100 or so years that credit unions have existed, no CU executive, no ad agency creative genius, no anybody for that matter, has been able to articulate the difference between credit unions and banks as well, as artistically and as entertainingly as the 19-year old Canadian that did this video?"
Larissa followed up her ground-breaking animated video with Part 2.
In the local market, we were able to parlay the world-wide notarity of these videos into an appearance by Larissa on a popular regional morning television program.
From green room and the Internet to the real world
Internet popularity aside, possibly the most impactful part of Larissa's term was when she was able to attend events with our Internal Spokester Jere. Visitors to the site are able to enter events on the calendar. The Y&F Team keeps an eye on these events and then selects a number to attend throughout the year.
Credit unions are presented with event sponsorship opportunities all of the time. These sponsorship packages typically include exposure through program advertisements, banners, logos on T-shirts and the ever-popular big cheque presentation. In the spirit of Young & Free, we were able do something far more fun and memorable. Larissa and Jere attended more than 10 events as roving reporters and documented their travels in video form.
Larissa packed a career of highlights into just nine months. Her impact has been felt throughout our credit union, our communities, our membership and the credit union industry. Not too bad for a young woman not yet 20 years old!
Larissa is now off to university to pursue a degree in film and we will certainly be keeping our eyes on her in the future. We were lucky to have had her as a team member for the first nine months of 2008.
The 2009 Young & Free Alberta Spokesperson search is officially up and running!
Vote for Larissa
Posted 10/26/2007
Thank You
Posted 11/21/2007
Breakfast TV#1
Posted 11/29/2007
Operation Surprise
Posted 12/10/2007
Breakfast TV #2
Posted 12/13/2007
Newcap News at Six
Posted 12/28/2007
Happy New Year
Posted 01/01/2008
Opening an Account
Posted 01/08/2008
The E-mail Song
Posted 01/15/2008
CU Difference Part 1
Posted 01/23/2008
CU Difference Teaser
Posted 01/30/2008
1-Month Anniversary
Posted 01/31/2008
Breakfast TV #3
Posted 02/06/2008
CU Difference Part 2
Posted 02/14/2008
Y&F First Road Trip
Posted 02/21/2008
Kalan Porter Tribute
Posted 02/26/2008
Larissa Meets Kalan
Posted 02/26/2008
CUCO Conference
Posted 03/05/2008
Yahoo Live Demo
Posted 03/20/2008
Think Free Chequing
Posted 04/10/2008
Movie Week Update
Posted 04/23/2008
Juno Contest Winner
Posted 04/30/2008
Reel Shorts Fest
Posted 05/08/2008
CU Difference Part 3
Posted 05/22/2008
Skate Park Opening
Posted 05/27/2008
Makes Cents
Posted 06/04/2008
Barrhead Weekend
Posted 06/10/2008
Slave Lake Opening
Posted 06/24/2008
Summer Week
Posted 06/30/2008
Shoebox Budget
Posted 07/09/2008
CUMA Speech
Posted 08/07/2008
Announcement
Posted 08/11/2008
Live Show Coming
Posted 08/13/2008
Larissa Live
Posted 08/14/2008
Back to School
Posted 08/18/2008
School Outtakes
Posted 08/18/2008
Larissa Skydiving
Posted 08/19/2008
Pocket Mod
Posted 08/27/2008
Are You In?
Posted 08/28/2008
The Search is On
Posted 09/03/2008
Vlog Tech Tips
Posted 09/08/2008
10 Reasons to Apply
Posted 09/22/2008
App Extension
Posted 10/01/2008
App Phase Closed
Posted 10/11/2008
Spokesminstrel
Posted 10/17/2008
Voting Closed
Posted 10/28/2008
Share your photos with Y&F Alberta by tagging them
"youngfreealberta" on Flickr. Here’s six of the latest.
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Financial Terms 101 Preview
Posted 01/05/2009
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