03/29/2009

Do you know what young people really want from your credit union?

By Tim McAlpine

In Alberta, Texas and South Carolina, that's exactly the question we ask our Young & Free Spokesperson finalists to explore. Spend a half an hour and watch these nine three-minute videos. You'll save a bunch of money on focus groups and I guarantee that you will come away with a deeper understanding of how young people from all over North America feel about banking and what they really want from their financial institutions.

In Texas

In South Carolina

In Alberta

The answers are very consistent and are not really that surprising. I think Kyle Whitcroft from South Carolina sums it up nicely:

"The young and free are looking for a financial institution that helps them understand their money, doesn't charge them for every transaction and personally cares about them as individuals. With so many businesses losing sight of what true customer service is, I believe that WE desire authenticity. We want to know that the person on the other side of the counter is human, just like us! So, while free checking, no minimum balances, great interest rates, online banking, etc, are awesome things to have, my hope is that you don't lose focus of relationships. One human to the other."

Our participating Young & Free credit unions have stuck to the overarching vision of giving young people a voice, a head start and useful information. It's not rocket science, but it is surprising how foreign these idea are to some financial institutions!

There lies a huge opportunity for credit unions to better connect with young people—after all, the future of the credit union movement depends on it.

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03/26/2009

Podcast 18: Credit Union Innovator Eric Dillon

By Tim McAlpine

Welcome to episode 18 of Credit Union Innovators. My guest is Eric Dillon. Eric is the Senior Vice President, Strategy and a member of the Executive Leadership Team of Servus Credit Union. In this role, Eric is accountable for strategy formulation, governance and policy development within Canada’s 3rd largest Credit Union. Today, Servus Credit Union has assets of $9.5 billion, operates 100 branches and proudly serves 63 communities across the Province of Alberta.

A passionate and energetic leader, Eric has been involved as a course facilitator for the Canadian credit union learning organization and as a member of several provincial committees. Eric has been recognized by Credit Union Central of Canada as a National Young Leader Award winner and was the inaugural Chairperson for the Credit Union National Young Leaders Committee. More recently, Eric was one of the primary architects behind the Young & Free Program that has won both national and international acclaim. Eric is currently a member of the Filene Institute’s i3 Program, which develops new and innovative concepts for use in credit unions worldwide.

An advocate of lifelong learning, Eric has a Masters of Business Administration degree focused on Management Consulting and Enterprise Risk Management and is also a graduate of the Queen’s University Leadership Program.

You can listen by streaming audio here or you can subscribe to it in iTunes and listen on your iPod.

Some links to get to know Eric even better

+ Servus Credit Union
+ Young & Free Alberta
+ Eric on Twitter
+ Eric's LinkedIn profile

Fast facts about Eric

• Weather in Edmonton? Not bad
• How tall are you? 5' 10.5"
• Favorite bald actor? Denzel Washington
• Peanut butter or chocolate? Chocolate
• Hockey, tennis or golf? Golf
• Bank or credit union? Credit union
• What's on your iPod? Matt Dusk

Looking for innovators

If you know a credit union innovator who I should interview, please e-mail me at tmcalpine at currencymarketing dot ca.

Production notes

+ Interview recorded with Call Recorder and Skype
+ My side recorded with a Blue Snowflake microphone
+ Edited in Audacity
+ Hosted on Evoca
+ Podcast RSS Feed through Feedburner
+ Music is A Song for Jake by Oregon Chad licensed through Creative Commons

Leave an audio comment

Leave an audio comment on my Skype voicemail.
+ 1-206-792-9470

NOTE: If you are listening on this page and want to post a comment, there is a good chance the CAPTCHA will time out. Make sure to hit the 'Post Comment' button twice. Copy your comment to your clipboard just to be safe. Thanks!

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03/22/2009

A couple of blog interviews with me

By Tim McAlpine

I've been asked to be part of a couple of blog series lately.

First up was an interview with Peter Reek from Smart Savvy + Associates. I've known Peter for about 10 years and he's a great guy. He's found real success with his new marketing recruitment firm. He is an uber-connector and putting people together is exactly what he's excellent at. I was one interview among nine other marketers making a difference in the Vancouver area.

Next up, was an interview with Aaron Strout, the CMO from Powered Inc. from Austin, Texas. I am interview number 55 in a series of profiles he has been doing since January. Honestly, I'm not sure how I made the list considering the first 54 interviews are the who's who in the social media world. Well, I do know, my friend Morriss Partee from EverythingCU.com suggested me. Thanks Morriss!

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03/17/2009

Young & Free South Carolina at 45 days old: let's check the numbers!

By Tim McAlpine

We launched Young & Free South Carolina powered by South Carolina Federal Credit Union on February 2. Young & Free Alberta and Young & Free Texas have been very successful and are definitely two tough acts to follow. We went in with modest expectations given that the Charleston area is much smaller than Edmonton and Houston and our supporting media buy was smaller in South Carolina.

Well, the last 45 days has been an absolute blur of activity and we can hardly keep up with the action. Now that the application phase is officially closed, here are some highlights:

• 101 blog posts
• 27 applicants
• 42 extra activities by all applicants*
• 2,435 members of applicants' Facebook groups**
• 1,870 blog comments
• 16,251 visits
• 9,052 absolute unique visitors

To put this into perspective, here are the stats for the same categories from the first 45 days of Alberta's first year:

• 24 blog posts
• 11 applicants
• 2 extra activities by all applicants*
• 145 members of applicants' Facebook groups**
• 162 blog comments
• 9,420 visits
• 6,548 absolute unique visitors

And here are the Texas stats for the same period of time:

• 34 blog posts
• 11 applicants
• 9 extra activities by all applicants*
• 560 members of applicants' Facebook groups**
• 482 blog comments
• 8,970 visits
• 6,990 absolute unique visitors

In South Carolina, we have five applicants who have generated more than 100 comments on their application blog posts. Blog comments are not the be all end all, but they certainly give an indication of visitor engagement.

• Darrell Brace with 313
• Kelly Gaskins with 186
• Josh Sutherland with 173
• Kyle Whitcroft with 141
• Gloria Hiatt with 135

I never thought DeAndre' Upshaw's winning application in Texas with 218 comments would ever be topped.

Without disclosing all of the stats, account openings have been equally impressive in South Carolina.

What's the difference?

Our Alberta and Texas partners are both great and both are taking Young & Free very seriously as important strategic initiatives. The same can be said about our South Carolina partners.

Is there something in the South Carolina water? I think there are a few small things that have made the difference in South Carolina that we will take forward to future Young & Free Spokesperson searches.

• Partnering with a local radio station to take Young & Free on as their own promotion has been invaluable. Here is a link to just some of the segments that 95SX has dedicated to Young & Free SC.
• Having a public relations expert on staff at the credit union has proven to be very powerful and has better enabled us to take advantage of opportunities as they have come up.
• An aggressive sales culture has fired up an army of word-of-mouth advocates within the credit union.
• The MY Accounts product suite with online account opening has made for a very compelling offer.
• And perhaps the most significant difference is the current state of the economy. It has made the Y&F Spokesperson job offer even more desirable. It's sobering to see the young talent pool that is currently looking for work.

What thrills me the most is that the Young & Free recipe for success is now working extremely well in three different regions. On a personal note, I am getting so much more satisfaction perfecting and refining this one initiative than I have ever had producing one-time-use, three-month campaigns.

On Monday, March 23, we reveal the top three and open the public voting. I expect the action will really kick into high gear!

*Extra activities include addition videos, Facebook groups, personal blogs, Twitter accounts, 12-second videos, Flickr photostreams, podcasts among other things
**These are the total members from the Facebook groups that we know about – there are likely far more

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03/11/2009

BECU's new TV spots: smart, hip and meaningful

By Tim McAlpine

We Canadians tend to consume a lot of American TV! Lately, I've noticed a very regular stream of BECU commercials flowing my way on  KING-TV, the Washington state NBC affiliate.

Here are a couple in the series.
 
 

"Can Do"

"Right Side Up"

I think these ads are spot on and promote the "safe and sound" message perfectly. Fast-paced, catchy music and a strong message. They definitely cut through.

I also really like the straight forward call to action: "We are BECU, join us."

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03/05/2009

I presented the Young & Free story at a British Columbia Association of Integrated Marketers luncheon

By Tim McAlpine

I presented an overview of Young & Free at a luncheon today for the BCAIM. I was looking back, and I can't believe the last time I spoke in Vancouver was 2005!

I took the opportunity to debut a new presentation on Young & Free. Last year, I primarily talked about the first year of the Alberta program so it was nice to now have four searches to talk about and everything we have learned along the way.

I will be doing the same talk twice in April. First up is the Card Services for Credit Unions Annual Meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on April 23 and then I am speaking at the Open Solutions Client Conference & Solutions Expo on April 29 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Young & Free. Challenge Marketing Explained.

March 5, 2009  |  BCAIM Luncheon  |  Vancouver, BC

Presentation overview
Generation Y is almost twice as big as Generation X. Could your business benefit from tapping into this market? Learn how the Young & Free Program is helping Canadian and US credit unions target Gen Y consumers. Apply these ideas to your business and you too will gain a competitive advantage. Tim McAlpine explains the Web 2.0 lessons learned and why the Young & Free Program appeals to Gen Yers and how it’s driving them to become credit union members.

Download handouts
+ Young & Free. Challenge Marketing Explained (4.19 MB PDF)

Thanks to the BCAIM for having me out. I appreciate it!

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