Tiny Investment, Huge Results

You don’t have to spend big bucks to get big marketing results. Creativity and resourcefulness can help you achieve an amazing return on investment, as Pelican State Credit Union, Baton Rouge, La., proved with a thrifty but powerful marketing effort that was deemed the Bootstrap of the Year winner in the 2014 CUES Golden Mirror Awards™ competition.

Pelican State CU’s award-winning entry involved the creation of a select employer group recruitment video and print marketing piece, which were developed for an overall cost of just $936. Launching the video and marketing booklet in January 2013, Pelican State CU subsequently acquired 17 new SEGs representing 4,155 employees. The loan activity from these new SEGs was a whopping $672,238!

“We had a lot of success appealing to our SEGs with our new SEG video and packet,” affirms Leigh Porta, AVP/marketing, business development and credit management at the $219 million/36,000-member credit union. “We used two different media, which gave us two different ways to appeal to our audience.

The direct costs for the video and mar-keting piece were low because the credit union produced them almost entirely in house. “The only cost was $936, which we spent to print the booklets,” Porta reports. “That was under our budget of $1,200.”

The three-panel marketing piece, printed on heavy card stock, is an update of a previous marketing brochure the credit union had used for several years. The revamped version has a more contemporary look and color scheme. “It mostly was a facelift,” Porta explains. “There were not a lot of copy changes. We like the three-panel format because it supplies a lot of information, but it’s not information overload.”

New to the piece were testimonials from SEGs that are already offering membership in Pelican State CU as an employee benefit. The testimonial from Community Coffee, for instance, touts Pelican State CU’s services as a great free addition to the company’s benefits package. The testimonial from Lyons Specialty and AA Vending LLC, meanwhile, pointed to the CU’s financial education program as a great benefit to help employees manage their money.

In addition to being used in the printed piece, the testimonials were recorded for use in the five-minute video. The video also features Pelican State CU President/CEO Jeffrey K. Conrad and Member Service Trainer Melanie Dupard explaining the benefits of joining a credit union and the many beneficial products and services the CU provides, such as high-interest checking, Visa cards with rewards, mobile banking, free financial education and one-on-one credit counseling. (View the video.)

While produced in house, the video has slick production values. “We’re lucky to have someone on our team who is a media specialist,” Porta says. “We have a production studio in our office, which includes a green screen as well as two Mac computers for creating the graphics.”

Pelican State CU, with 11 branch offices in Louisiana, uses the SEG video and packet to reach potential employee groups throughout the state. The marketing tools are excellent leave-behinds in conjunction with business development calls. In addition, the CU has emailed the video to various prospects. “We sent the video to every member of the Chamber of Commerce in some of the communities we serve,” Porta reports.

An Excellent Year

CUES GMA Bootstrap of the Year is one of seven marketing awards Pelican State CU has won in 2014—the most ever for the credit union in a single year. The CU won first-place CUES GMA honors in the Business Development and Digital Campaign categories. Pelican State CU also received two Diamond Awards from the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council, a Silver Award from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions and the Excellence in Marketing Award from the Louisiana Credit Union League.

“We’re ecstatic at the number of awards we’ve won,” says Porta. “It’s exciting, unexpected attention, that’s for sure. Even though we create a campaign, execute it and track it, the results are what win awards, and that’s something that reflects on the entire credit union.”

As the CEO, Conrad, a CUES member, is appreciative of the collaborative effort that has brought such positive results and recognition to Pelican State CU. “This is an example of what you can do when you get everyone together in a room and let their creativity flow,” Conrad says. “Everyone brings something to the table. I’m very proud of our team and what they accomplished.”

Diane Franklin is a freelance writer in Florissant, Mo.