By Ron Jooss
Last week, I was maintaining my usual level of Sunday afternoon productivity watching football. As I did a bit of channel surfing I came across a college bowl preview show. On the crawler at the bottom of the screen I saw a match-up for the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. "Wow," I said to my wife, "There's a credit union that's sponsoring a bowl game." Then, the next day at work I heard one of my co-workers say to another colleague, "Hey, I saw a credit union is sponsoring one of the bowl games."
The words "credit union" and "bowl game" don't typically go together. Bowl games sponsorships are usually reserved for the big boys. You've got the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the AT&T Cotton Bowl, the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi … You get the picture.
I know: We are overwhelmed with less-than meaningful bowl games this time of year. But like it or not, those sponsorships give companies peace of mind with consumers. And most folks have plenty of downtime during the holidays, so they tune into those games. The sponsorships wouldn't be worth it for companies if they didn't pull in viewers.
Give $4 billion San Diego County CU credit for stepping up—on behalf of all credit unions. As banks and other financial services suppliers struggle to maintain their credibility, this is a time of opportunity for credit unions to increase their visibility. Maybe other credit unions—and the movement collectively—should look at big-ticket sponsorship opportunities.
Ron Jooss edits the General Management and Board sections of CUES' Credit Union Management.
