Young & Free comes to the U.S.
Posted by Brent Dixon on June 3rd, 2008
Currency Marketing announced today that the Young & Free program is now available to credit unions across the U.S.
Interested credit unions – or in some cases, state leagues – will receive a regional license on a first-come-first-serve basis (ex: “Young & Free Wisconsin”).
Has Young & Free Alberta been successful for 52,000-member Common Wealth CU ? Here are some numbers. In eight months:
- Over 1,900 Young & Free Checking Accounts opened.
- Average account balance of $1,422 in an account that pays no interest (they were hoping for $250 per account).
- Total in market PR-value of over $200,000 (calculated from print, online, radio, and tv articles/segments, brand mentions, and impressions).
I think replicating the success of Alberta’s program will be based on three things:
- Finding the right personality to represent each region. Larissa is a jackpot of creativity and charisma, will other CUs be so lucky?
- Providing spokesters with the perfect tightrope of freedom and direction. This is a high-engagement campaign, both for consumers and involved credit unions.
- Tying in a unique product. Common Wealth’s product, a free checking account, is hugely novel in Canada because they’re one of the only FIs to offer free checking. The U.S. market will need something a little sweeter.
That said, this program has the potential to tackle the CU “national brand/awareness” issue by digging in on a grassroots level. It’ll be like dropping paratroopers of relevance throughout the U.S.
For more details, check out Tim’s announcement post from earlier today.
I’m a huge fan of the YoungFreeAlberta site, but just don’t think its “coolness” can be duplicated. I am interested to see if anyone can prove me wrong though!
@Brandon: Interesting comment that you don’t think its coolness can be duplicated. I clicked over to your site, and it looks to me like you’ve created a site that would rival Y&F in coolness.
But let me ask you this: How did UTFCU decide to do what it did w/ that site?
My bet is that you made some educated guesses, took some chances, and learned by trial and error.
So why couldn’t someone like Currency Marketing go to other CUs and help jumpstart their efforts (and avoid the possible pitfalls) to do what Commonwealth did in Alberta or what you’re doing in Knoxville?
GenY has money in the bank? I thought we wasted it all on iPods and lattes?
</tongueincheek>Derrick, you’re assuming that those with Y&F accounts are Gen-Y (because, presumably, Gen-Y was the target of this promo).
From what I understand, there wasn’t a free checking account option available in Alberta prior to the Y&F account. So maybe the demographic
- and account balances -a spread across a wide range?@Derrick @Jeffry We’re talking Canadians here. They’ve got some serious money up there.
p.s. What’s even more astounding is that C$1,422 is worth, what, about US$5,000?
@Ron: Thanks for the compliment on our site. It is still very much a beta right now, but we’re having fun with it! When we developed the site, we focused our energy into two main areas. The first, which you already mentioned, was designing an interactive experience that fits what Gen-Y expects to see in a website. We have tried to make it as easy as possible for visitors to access information and interact with the site, and we’ve built a back end that allows us to make updates quickly. I am sure that we’ve made some mistakes, but look forward to seeing how the site evolves to address the feedback we get. Certainly some consulting on the more technical aspects of creating a social media site would have been very useful.
The second thing we focused on was identifying the characteristics that make the visitors we’re trying to attract (in our case, UTK students) unique. We looked at campus traditions and current issues at the university and tried to match our contests, promotions, and events to what we learned. We also took a look at the talents and interests of credit union employees and created ways utilize those special skills in the campaign.
Much of what we are doing in this area hasn’t been announced yet, but the blog post on “Painting the Rock” is a good example of what I am getting at. We took a campus tradition, painting the rock, and combined with a personal hobby of mine, creating stencils for street art. In addition, an employee created the music for the video in Garage Band and another helped film everything. That post helped create a sense of ownership among employee participants and was relevant to the intended audience.
It’s this second part that I don’t think can be bundled and sold. Sure, a CMS created specifically for this type of campaign could be an asset, but something like that could be built easily enough anyway. As far as content goes, I believe that should be determined by the audience and credit union employees. I fear it will be too easy to buy and implement a system without ever asking the important questions or taking steps to create a truly unique experience. To me, Larissa’s personality is what makes youngfreealberta.com so engaging. If you replaced her, you would need to create an entirely new site based on the personality of the new spokesperson.
@Jeffry: Indeed, I was assuming that the stats were just for the GenY accounts. Perhaps that was a bad assumption
@Ron: lol – excellent point, sir! I’ve never been one to dabble in the currencies market, but it seems to me the dollar is on sale right now. Shoot, 2-for-1 against the British pound! Buy low, sell high, right?
@Everyone: Forgive my conversational detraction. Isn’t it Friday yet?
I wonder if Canadian teens are more capable of hanging on to their money than U.S. teens?
Nah…
I like the Young & Free model, from what I know about it.
Another cool thing I saw done is what TFCU did with www.whatmoneymeanstome.org
1. They held a contest to have teens sumbit videos about what money means to them.
2. They received 30 entries.
Benefits: Engage youth, create buzz, populate site with home grown video from kids in community.
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