Changing of the Guard: Young Blood
Nov 14, 2008 
Enterprise Magazine | By Eve Lazarus
Last January, Alberta's Common Wealth Credit Union handed over a chunk of its brand to 19-year-old Larissa Walkiw. The teen became the elected "spokester" for Young & Free Alberta (Y&F) - a new product with benefits designed for 17 to 25-year-olds. During the nine months of her term, Walkiw cranked out vlogs, blogs, podcasts and polls. She represented the $1.8-billion Lloydminster-headquartered credit union at financial conferences and hockey events, became an Internet celebrity and, along the way, received a crash course in business. By finding out what teens really want, she also created a pathway for Common Wealth's leaders to follow. (Common Wealth merged with Servus Credit Union on Nov. 1)
Walkiw doesn't have a financial background - she's never even taken an economics class. But the wanna-be filmmaker's lack of financial know-how turned out to be an advantage. "I knew I was on the right track if I understood what I was explaining," she says.
One of Walkiw's animated videos on youngfreealberta.com, showing the differences between banks and credit unions, scored more than 30,000 hits and is still doing the rounds in cyberspace. Comments posted to the Y&F website include things like "Sweet animation. I feel more connected to my credit union already" and "Just. Simply. Brilliant."
While financial institutions acknowledge the need to attract Generation Ys, few take any action. One financial institution that did hired a handful of university-age bloggers and then vetted everything they wrote. After eventually posting the comments to the website, their original thoughts sound more like a banking manual, says Walkiw. Young people, she adds, demand authenticity.
Bricks and mortar intimidate many Gen Ys and money is a daunting subject, Walkiw adds. "Online allows them to explore and ask questions almost anonymously, as opposed to having to sit in a little office with an account representative and feeling stupid for asking basic things." Bankers, says Walkiw, need to be receptive to questions such as "how do I get a car loan" and "how do I establish a line of credit?"
Want to attract the young? Try understanding their brand. Walkiw's Facebook profile tells you that she loves the Beatles, she watches Diggnation podcasts and her favorite movie is This is Spinal Tap. "Something corporate has to fit within that framework that I design for myself," she says.
Walkiw says credit union executives are afraid to enter the online universe because of a crippling fear of feedback and negative publicity. "It says a lot more about you as a company if you recognize what people are saying and respond to it," she says. "You don't necessarily need to have the answer, but as long as you recognize their thoughts and opinions that shows a very strong sense of character."
Does it work? Well, by diving head first into the online environment and putting a human face to the brand, in 10 months Common Wealth received deposits of $3.5 million into more than 2,000 new Y&F accounts, notched up 906 blog comments and received more than 55,000 website visits. Which only goes to show: innovation and honest communication can, indeed, be measurable.
From the preface
...Enterprise also chose to include Albertan Larissa Walkiw in this executive list. Walkiw isn't a credit union leader—well, not yet, anyways. But she has shown the same mettle this year through her hard work with Common Wealth Credit Union's Young & Free initiative, which reaches out to young members aged 17 to 25. As we all know, real leadership means listening to those at the bottom, because they are the ones whose ideas will ultimately push the system to further successes.
