This morning I’m still feeling very judgmental -- and yet I have no more Golden Mirror Awards entries to judge. I guess I could judge the process of being a GMA judge? Hmmmm ... OK.
First of all, let me say, CUES did an excellent job of coordinating, planning, hosting, feeding, watering, wining and dining judges and entries. As you can imagine, corralling nine creative people for three days was probably like herding cats for CUES. Thanks to Kristina and Maria for being patient.
The entries were judged on four things. Let me comment on each.
No. 1 Results (if required) comparison of objectives with desired results.
CUES gave us a guideline (or definition) of the point values. How ROI was calculated on the entries was all over the board. I like to call this marketing math - and I blame the CFO for making us do it. We are, after all, creative people, and man oh man did I see some creative math. I almost felt like some marketers were viciously complying with ROI. I imagined the conversation going something like this:
CFO: You want how much money in your marketing budget?
Marketing: Ten dollars.
CFO: Well we’ll need to see the return on investment on that kind of budget.
Marketing: It was 145,863%
CFO: Fine.
I’ve always had a problem with the ROI marketing math. Unless you have a coupon or some way to really validate that your newspaper ad, direct mail piece, radio spot directly contributed to the increase in business, can we really say that effort is responsible for the increase? Or, is it because you convinced your CFO to give the best rate humanly possible on that IRA during peak IRA season?
This is not going to be a popular thing to say, but I think in these tough times we need to be more responsible with our members’ money. We are, after all, a financial cooperative.
Case in point: the annual report. While judging the GMAs, I saw the most gorgeous annual report I think I’ve ever seen. I mean this baby was quality, clever, and bottom line, MADE me want to read it. Wow. Goal achieved? Maybe.
You see, this credit union had well over 50,000 members and they printed 750 reports, and they submitted like 10 copies of the reports for the judging because I can only assume they had lots left over. Each piece cost $10 to print. $7,500 for who knows how many real members. Who usually comes to the annual meeting? Staff. Board. Members running for the board. Their friends. What was the impact? What would have been different if they had just printed the financial report, president/board report and photocopied in house. I really can’t say, but it’s something to consider. I know - wet blanket.
No. 2 Creativity was the next judging category. This of course is and has to be subjective. Many lively debates though on what our definition of creative is. I loved this one.
No. 3 Planning was the third category we judges were asked to evaluate. Strategies and components used to develop a plan for the project/campaign.
I was surprised at the number of entries that still used the “spray and pray” approach to marketing. With all the tools available to segment members, even with creative marketing math, I don’t see that this is a good idea these days. Some credit unions have confused their “territory” with their “target audience.”
And finally there was category No. 4, production, left to consider. The quality of the piece/campaign, including printing, photography, design, audio/video talent and other production components.
Marketers love paper, don’t we? I think I rubbed off my fingerprints touching the gorgeous papers used in some of these pieces.
Photography--I was pleasantly surprised to see a distinct decline in the “shiny happy people” usage. Nicely done.
The one category that gave me flashbacks to 1983, however, was the radio production. I know it’s fun to go into a recording studio and even more fun when you can hear your work as you drive to the office, BUT.....if your goal is to “young-it-up,” your radio ad is not going to do it. Period.
First--even though your media buyer will tell you that Z100 Morning Zoo is the spot to attract 18- to 24-year-olds, most of these folks are ignoring you with their iPods. Oops. That was really negative. And I don’t mean to be--I’m just looking at the dollars spent in this area and, again, knowing that the average age of a credit union member is still crazy-old at 48! Radio spots are not going to lower this. Especially the ones I heard. We are stuck in a “punundrum” using all kinds of pun marketing, circa 1983. Ouch!
So what can we do, Denise? Well.......think business development. And not in the usual way of sign up a SEG, drop off brochures and pray. Think of it literally as creating buzz in the Gen Y world. I saw one entry that, in my opinion, did not have a category. It was a blog and it rocked. It had nothing to do with credit union products or services, and that confused many judges. It had everything to do with the counter culture that was growing in the credit union's marketplace. You can’t measure ROI on it, you can’t control when people read it (with a media buy), direct mail won’t drive people to it and members contribute to it! WOW!
It came up last year, and I know CUES is strongly considering adding social media to the award process. It’s very new and it can’t be measured the old-fashioned way so it makes me think that we need to begin to question everything in 2009 when it comes to how we spend our marketing time and marketing budgets. Don’t confuse action with progress. Wean your management team away from campaign thinking and introduce the concept of “reputation building.” What is the word on the street about your credit union? Do you know?
Now’s the time to ask.......
Denise Wymore is a culture consultant based in Seattle. Check out her blog. And this is her pig!
