Challenge marketing for credit unions part 0: A preface

It's time for a meaty series of blog posts. This is part 0 of however many it takes.

Currency Marketing works exclusively with credit unions. That I know. However, for awhile now I have been wrestling with what Currency Marketing does for credit unions. We have been the agency of record, the design studio, the brand consultancy, the interactive agency and the communications firm. To cover all of the bases, we call ourselves a credit union marketing agency. 

But then this wildly successful social-media-plus-user-generated-video-Internet-contest-spokester-extravaganza-campaign-that-never-ends-marketing-mash-up-program took us in a new direction and has given us a new competency in something very exciting and very different.

At first, I thought it was social media marketing, but that's not enough. Social media is just one success factor. The more I think about it, the more I like the term challenge marketing.

In fact, I feel so strongly about this type of marketing approach that I have changed the positioning of our firm. This is what we do.

Super-charged credit union member engagement. Driving product sales and member growth through powerful challenge marketing programs.

If you don't believe me, check out our new homepage.

I will remember 2008 as The Year of Dozens of Long Flights. I prefer the aisle seat, because I can easily grab my laptop from the overhead compartment and plunk away when the feeling hits me. On a few of the longer flights, I have been attempting to write a white paper that reverse engineers Young & Free Alberta's success.

But I realize now that I work better in blog post chunks. So, I am going to bash out a series of posts that identify the success factors of challenge marketing. And, ideally, you the reader will challenge me in the comments and in the end I will have what I need to put it all together and have the white paper that I have been hoping for.

Here are the sections that I will write about:

1. An introduction to challenge marketing—moving beyond passive contesting and throw-away promotions
2. Getting comfortable with sales and marketing on the social web and how to keep things local
3. Designing a challenge, a product offer and a reward that are sure to ignite a niche group and align with your credit union's goals and objectives
4. Using traditional and non-traditional marketing to jump start your program
5. Should you require a log-in to participate?
6. Building your program on a suitable web platform
7. Creating a steady stream of entertaining and educational content
8. Encouraging multiple levels of participation that build and reward an army of followers
9. Setting participation goals and consistently measuring
10. Allocating appropriate resources and support and figuring out who should be involved

Does that sound like a good plan to you? I am sure I have missed something, but 10 parts will be a great start. And now that I have put it out there, I have to complete it.

Tim