NEW ONLINE AD NETWORK CONNECTS TO HARD-TO-REACH YOUTH DEMO

Last week Josh Jones at YES CU blog raised the question of CUs using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns to attract new CU members. As we commented back on the Yes CU blog, at PSCU Financial Services (and our ProjectNewAge initiative) we’re encouraged by recent advancements in targeted paid search marketing in social networks and other relevant online media.

That’s why we were excited to hear that GoFish has launched its youth-oriented, online advertising network targeting 17.4 million young U.S. Web users. GoFish focuses on Web media reaching 6-to-17 year olds (remember, Gen Y begins at age 13 or so).

GoFish, and other similar ad networks, can help CUs (as a whole) leverage the very large aggregate audience of youth-oriented virtual worlds. This is important because the number of new Web sites in Kids Entertainment and Teen Community categories grew nearly 50 percent from Q4 2006 to 2007. And by effectively utilizing selected online ad networks, CUs may also reach co-viewing parents who share the web experience with their Gen Y’ers.

ProjectNewAge will continue monitoring GoFish and other online ad networks to help CUs reach the all-elusive Gen Y. Has your CU used PPC yet? Tell us!