Program Attracts 1,000 New (Young) Members
Dec 22, 2008 
Credit Union Journal
Lloydminster, Alberta - The introduction of a program called “Young & Free” has brought more than 1,000 new members to one credit union here.
Introduced in late 2007, the Young & Free program from Common Wealth Credit Union turned out to be an effective driver of membership during 2008 from a demographic many CU’s struggle with attracting. The financial management package targets young Albertans, includes a package of free, unlimited financial services, along with an online microsite that includes financial hints, polls, blogs and trivia.
Common Wealth CU has made something of a celebrity out of the spokesperson it has named to be the voice of the 17-to-25-year olds, and attracted publicity with each search. Each year a new spokesperson takes over the role, and travels around the province attending and speaking at events, producing and posting audio and video podcasts, and writing regular blog entries on everything from finance to pop culture.
Since it’s inception, 30% of the new members who have joined the 56,000 member CWCU have been young members, according to Kim Crockett, Young & Free manager.
“This translated into adding 1,000-plus new youth members to the 4,800 we had at program launch,” he said. Today there are 2,736 Young & Free account-holders with $3,924,220 on deposit for an average balance of $1,608. “These Young & Free members also have loans totaling $26,592,816 and investments totaling $1,409,003 with the credit union after just 12 months,” Crockett said.
Since launch, traffic to the Young & Free website has included 95,021 visitors with 285,440 page views. Those visitors have posted 1,381 blog comments and 128,014 You Tube videos.
The credit union estimates that the Young & Free program has also received more than $425,000 in unpaid media coverage to date, Crockett said. The initiative is marketed through the Internet on sites such as MSN, Flickr and YouTube.
