We launched Young & Free for Alberta's Common Wealth Credit Union today!

By Tim McAlpine

This has been a tough one to keep a secret! We launched a youth initiative for Alberta's fourth-largest credit union, Common Wealth Credit Union today and I am totally excited!

Common Wealth Credit Union came to us in the Fall of 2006 and asked for our thoughts on how they could connect with the youth in Alberta and launch a new free chequing account for the under 26 crowd.

Our solution is www.youngfreealberta.com. This is the first credit union we have worked with that has had the courage to attempt a social media experiment with this depth of user-generated content with a very long-term commitment.

When CEO, Jeff Mulligan, asked for my thoughts on success, my answer was, "I believe this will work!" That was good enough for him and away we go on what is sure to be a wild ride.

I have been longing to dig Currency's teeth into a project where we have been able to combine a great product with the power of the social web and potentially make a real-world impact. I believe Young & Free has that potential.

The website is the tip of the iceberg. The amount of planning and coordination has been enormous. I want to thank everyone at Currency Marketing, K1 Technology, DSA Media and Brookline PR for working as a coordinated team. I also want to thank our courageous client, Common Wealth Credit Union for taking a chance at really making a difference.

We've had a nice article posted already on the CUES Nexus Connection Blog. Thanks for the shout out Kristin Gilpatrick and Lisa Hochgraf!

Check it out, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Comments

1) Jeffry Pilcher @ Oct 03, 2007
http://www.webermarketing.com

I looked at every page in-depth last night. This is brilliant work. Nice job.

Please keep us posted regarding the site's progress. I'm particularly interested in the offline strategy to promote the site.

2) Gene Blishen @ Oct 03, 2007
http://www.tinfoiling.wordpress.com

This is it. Finally a key usage with social media as the hub. Congratulations on what everyone else talked about but Common Wealth and Currency did!

3) Brent @ Oct 05, 2007
http://www.trabian.com

I can't wait to see how this plays out. Tim ("Cowp"), Nala, Caleb, and the rest of the CM crew - what an awesome, awesome job.

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