Three doses of new credit union online coolness

By Tim McAlpine

Here's a shout out to three credit unions that are innovating online.

First Entertainment's The Audition microsite

Southern California's First Entertainment Credit Union is about to launch a new microsite on June 23, 2008. From the looks of the teaser intro, this is not your basic amateur web video production. It features beautifully produced video with an intriguing storyline brought to life by terrific actors. I can't wait to follow this site after the official launch.

I am big fan of First Entertainment's marketing initiatives. This is one credit union that really knows its field of membership! Considering that these members are from the entertainment business including movie studios, ad agencies and creative firms involved in radio, film, Internet and television, its no surprise that the marketing output of this credit union is wildly entertaining!

Addison Avenue's new youth-centered Addison Cafe microsite

Next up is a fresh new microsite from Northern California's Addison Avenue Credit Union. As one of the founding Zopa US partners, Addison Avenue is no stranger to innovation. This is how Addison Avenue describes its new online venture, "Designed with young adults in mind. The site has products relevant to the needs of that age group and even has a blog that discusses finances in a relevant, real-life way."

America First adds product ratings and reviews to its website

Michigan's (whoops!) Utah's America First Credit Union is the first financial institution that I have run across that has added product ratings and reviews to its website. This is brilliant! Obviously, America First has taken a page out of the playbook of successful online retailers such as Amazon and Apple. This is a brave direct feedback loop that other credit unions are unlikely to follow right away. I can hear the collective credit union masses gasping as they think to themselves, "What if we get a low rating or a bad review on one of our products?"

I bet the folks at America First are thinking, "If we get a bad review, we'll just have to improve our products and services."

Doug True from FORUM Solutions had an excellent guest post on Open Source CU yesterday calling out risk-adverse credit unions. I agree with Doug, but I am also encouraged by these fresh examples and others that I stumble upon daily.

Comments

1) Ben Rogers @ Jun 18, 2008
http://filene.org/home/blog/cutomorrow

Right-o, Tim. I'm proud to be a member of Addison Avenue; they were one of the first on the Zopa train, and I boarded there.

First Entertainment looks intriguing; I'm curious how they'll eventually tie credit union usage into the slick presentation. But any CU willing to host a surfer, a starlet and a Brit deserves some watching.

And America First is in my old Wasatch stomping grounds ... Utah.

2) Jonathan Gowins @ Jun 18, 2008
http://theaddisoncafe.com

Tim- Glad you liked our site! It has been a lot of fun working on it. Great insight as usual...keep up the great posts!

Ben- Glad to hear you're a member! Hope the Zopa partnership is working out well for you.

3) Clint @ Jun 18, 2008

Tim - very inspiring stuff - you do a great job scraping together good bits like this.

4) Denise Wymore @ Jun 18, 2008
http://www.denisewymore.com

These are gorgeous!!

Big big fan of the Addison Avenue folks. They make everything cool seem so easy. That's some DNA that can't be R & D'd (ripped off and duplicated).

See you in Cancun next week Tim! Denise

5) Rich Syme @ Jun 18, 2008
http://www.americafirst.com

Tim - thanks for the mention. There was a lot of discussion on whether we should do this or not. Most of that was centered on what we do about bad ratings. But in the end, since we do hear so many positive things from our members we decided why not let members hear from each other about our products and services. And no, not all of the reviews have been totally positive, but thats ok. We will address them as we recieve them. So far so good. By the way, America First is based in Utah

6) Tim McAlpine @ Jun 18, 2008

@Rich - D'oh! I don't know why Michigan was in my head?

7) Roy @ Jun 19, 2008
http://firstent.org

Tim - Thanks for the shout out about GAL (goaheadlaugh.org)! We launched the site as part of our teaser campaign for the full blown launch on 6/23. In addition to the site we did POS, online and print ads, emails, direct mail, basically every touch point we could....I have to admit it feels strange to invest that kind of money in something that you can't see immediate tangible results from, like an auto loan promo for instance. Like Ben's comment, many have wondered how we will tie the CU into the video, and that was the point of the campaign... to make you wonder enough to come back on 6/23. At the end of the day though, it doesn't matter at all what anyone thinks except our members and potential members.... and we will all begin to find out about that on Monday. Thanks again for the props.

8) Jim @ Jun 19, 2008

Rich -- I tried reading your Product Reviews and ran into the member login. A call to your Member Service Center (and the agent's call to Tech Support) was answered with a response that the reviews were not availble for member view but instead were only available to America First. Is this true?

9) Rich Syme @ Jun 19, 2008
http://www.americafirst.com

@Jim - The reviews are available to any visitor to the website. Currently they can be accessed from any of the product pages. We do require a member log in to leave a review, but not to see or review the ratings. However, you uncovered a flaw in our navigation that we are in the process of changing. The tile on the front page leads you to a page that ask visitors to leave a review which does require a member log in. We are adding a link to that reviews micro site so that visitors can choose to view the product reviews from there in addition to the product pages. Thanks.

10) Mike Templeton @ Jun 22, 2008
http://tmgblog.com

Kudos to Tim for uncovering each of these websites and to First Entertainment, Addison Avenue and America First for being the proponents of change of innovation.

Addison Ave digs right into where its membership is hanging out and provides them with that "third place" between work and home that Starbucks has worked so hard to capture.

Of the three sites mentioned, I am most impressed with America First. The incorporation of member ratings and reviews is a big step in today's world of open communication and transparency. I was also happy to see that several products and services already have submissions!

I hope that as word spreads throughout the CU-sphere we see more and more FIs jumping on board and initiating similar ideas.

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