LAS VEGAS—People in Stillwater, Okla. are about to get Smart.
Jeremy Daggs and University and Community Credit Union have won the $10,000 prize here from the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council here as part of its Pitch contest. Daggs was one of three finalists for the prize in which credit union marketers presented their ideas to meeting attendees and then attendees voted via text for the winner.
Jeremy Daggs, left, with Sarah Bacehowski of Mills Marketing after Daggs won $10,000 prize from CUNA Marketing Council at conference in Las Vegas.
Also vying for the prize were Glen Stacey of Sunmark FCU in Albany, N.Y., and Amy McGraw of Tropical Financial Credit Union in Miramar, Fla.
Daggs’ idea was for a “Plan Smart, Live Smart Smart Car” that will be taken to various community events in the CU’s Stillwater, Okla.-market in order to meet members and potential members where they are. The car will include chalkboards on its exterior on which people, including school kids, can write messages (and ideally shoot a photo and distribute the “brand connection” via social media), as well as a tablet mounted in the car to sign up members and further provide financial education.
The goal, said Daggs, is to get 50% of the people on hand at any event to connect with the CU, and then to get just 10% of those to connect with the Plan Smart Live Smart website. It is projecting $2.75-million in new business over a five-month period once it has the Smart car in place.
The prize also comes with a year’s worth of consulting assistance from Mills Marketing, Des Moines, Iowa.
The $100-million University and Community Credit Union serves 12,000 members and is seeking to reach members it typically does not, Daggs said during his presentation at the meeting. In all, the credit union is estimating it will cost $18,000 to purchase the car and customize it.
“We have noticed that people in our community care more about a monthly payment than a loan rate,” Daggs said. “We’ve also noticed people are going to dealerships and doing their financing there, and then come to us and refinance later. This is where we are missing the mark. We need to go into community and educate people on difference between a loan rate and a monthly payment. Our solution is the Plan Smart, Live Smart Smart car. They can’t come to us, so we can go to them.”
Glen Stacey of Unmark FCU at pitches his idea at CUNA Marketing and Business Development meeting.
The ‘At-Cost’ Café
Also presenting his idea to the CUNA Marketing/Business Development Council meeting was Glen Stacey of Sunmark FCU in Albany, N.Y. Seeking to highlight that credit unions offer services to members “at cost” with very little mark-up, Stacey pitched the Sunmark At-Cost Café, a coffee vending vehicle that would travel around its markets and sell coffee for 26 cents a cup, its cost.
With most people paying several dollars or more for a cup of coffee, the objective, said Stacey, would be to show how much mark-up people are paying on coffee—as well as other products, such as the financial products/services they get from banks.
“When people ask why the coffee is so cheap, we explain that credit unions save members money every day and pass along the savings to members every day,” said Stacey.
Had Sunmark won the $10,000, the plan was to partner with another vendor who already has a food truck (and the requisite licenses) to visit the credit unions 280 SEGs, which it calls Community Business Partners. He said Sunmark is in the process of hiring a manager for its CBPs right now.
The goal would have been 30 new members per month during the program, which it would track using a tracking code.
League of Financial Goodness
The final person making their “pitch,” Amy McGraw, VP-marketing with Tropical Financial Credit Union, was seeking funds to help better disseminate a video the credit union has produced that is aimed at younger members called “The League of Financial Goodness.”
Amy McGraw of Tropical Financial CU pitches her idea at CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council meeting in Las Vegas.
The credit union has had relatively good success penetrating Generation Y and Millennials, she said, although it has struggled to penetrate checking. Seeking “loca heroes” as part of the “League” promotion, the plan called for Tropical to select one such hero from each of the three counties it serves to win $1,000, and than allow the local hero to select a charity that would receive The objective was to have charities nominate people, which would help to spread the word.