Trusted News for Credit Union Leaders

Credit Union Times

OCTOBER 3, 2018 | VOL. 29 | NO. 34 | CUTIMES.COM

FOCUSREPORT:

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is frequently a part of most CUs’ marketing conversations these days, but how can they create effective campaigns? In this Focus Report, hear from two CUs that won awards for recent social media campaigns on what trends to focus on and how other CUs can hook their members with social media, too. Y6

Must Reads

HUMAN RESOURCES

AI and Employee Engagement Driven by robots and fueled by artificial intelligence, the consumer experience evolves on a daily basis. Although some express their fears about data mining and the loss of privacy – “How do they know what I want?” – increasingly, consumers want to be offered something they care about, something that reflects their unique personality, something that customizes the consuming experience.

This desire for customization crosses all generational boundaries. And most of these consumers are employees, as well. For that reason, employees expect a customized workplace experience that includes a menu of benefits options and ease of enrollment in a plan. They want to be able to enroll independently and to know they have chosen the best plan for themselves and their family.

But most aren’t experiencing this. When enrollment time rolls around, they are confronted with a single, one-size-fits-all process that is years behind anything they encounter as consumers. The result? Engagement remains discouragingly low and employees continue to opt for plans that don’t really meet their needs.

But HR professionals and benefits managers can change all that. They simply need to tap into the data that’s available, which tells us that one-size-fits-all benefits plans are obsolete. Y14

Governance
Structure
Create a strong
one to ease
compliance. Y12
Hitting the
Bull’s Eye
Learn 10
keys to digital
targeting. Y9
MARKETING

CU Makes Financial Literacy Engaging

veryone knows financial literacy is important, but let’s be blunt – financial literacy can be … well ... kind of boring, especially for young people who may opt to watch grass grow as a more exciting venture.

Which brings us to the next
logical question: Is there a way to
make financial literacy engaging,
The $616 million Merrimack
Valley Credit Union reported it
has successfully caught the at-
tention of its millennial members
by challenging them to test their
financial smarts with CashIQ.

The web-based and smartphone-
friendly PlayCashIQ.com features
quizzes, designed to test mem-
bers’ acumen on nine financial
topics and with chances to win
cash and prizes, including dis-
counts on financial products and
services.

During a soft rollout of CashIQ in August, among MVCU members who completed 1,400 quizzes in less than two weeks, more than 80% reported to be millennials.

“Our goal in starting this project was to find a more innovative way to engage our members, especially our millennial members and to teach them much-needed financial literacy skills in a way that is fun and that they would

PETER STROZNIAK pstrozniak@cutimes.com

Y16

Respond to Auto Buyers’ Behaviors LENDING

JIM DUPLESSIS jduplessis@cutimes.com

ar buyers typically make loans an afterthought, but some credit unions are working to be at the forefront of their members’ minds as they shop for vehicles.

Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union in San Antonio, Texas ($9 billion in assets, 769,214 members) allows members to shop online through its preferred dealer network or Carvana, a Phoenix, Ariz., company that sells used cars online and delivers them directly to buyers.

Other credit unions use services such as GrooveCar, which allows credit unions to put a local car-buying site on their websites, connecting members with a network of the credit unions’ preferred dealers.

The approaches differ, but the goal is the same: To get shoppers to the credit union’s website first,

to the virtual tire-kicking pages
quickly and ultimately draw them
back for the loan.
“It’s all about en-
gaging the mem-
ber, and getting
from point A to
point B very quick-
ly,” Robert O’Hara,