ProjectNewAge.com Blog

Bank of America Targets College Students with Morris, the Upperclassman

With the start of the new school semester, Bank of America launches the “Morris on Campus” website to “educate and empower students to take control of their finances and bank with confidence.”

Based on results from a recent Bank of America sponsored survey, “38% college-aged students reported they could use help in managing their money.” So Bank of America launched this new website with Morris as their spokesperson to provide tips on financial matters and general college living, with videos, budget worksheets, a glossary of terms, a student finance handbook and more.

This site also introduces the “Student Package,” a suite of student-designed products such as the CampusEdge Checking account, a student Visa and the Keep the Change program (that rounds your debit card purchases to the next dollar and deposits the difference into your savings account).

As you look at new ways to market to Gen-Y consumers, do your product offerings speak to this target audience specifically? Are there products that have more appeal or could be coupled together to differentiate your credit union from other financial institutions?

You can check out the website at http://www.bankofamerica.com/oncampus.

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Another interesting statistic from the Bank of America survey is that “more than three in four (77%) turn to their parents for financial information and advice”—further evidence that educating moms and dads (like with the GiveMe20.com website) is a great way to attain new Gen-Y members.

If you are a PSCU Financial Services credit union and haven’t already signed up to be part of the GiveMe20.com credit union search database, visit www.projectnewage.com today and click on the “sign us” up button.

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To read the Bank of America, Morris on Campus, press release and get more data from the reference survey, visit the Bank of America newsroom.

Credit Unions Can Help “Pay It Forward” Too

Many of you probably remember Oprah’s Pay It Forward Challenge a couple years ago. But can a credit union champion a Pay It Forward campaign in their community? Well, Seattle Metro Credit Union thought so and did!

On October 6th, Seattle Metro Credit Union gave away $10 to Seattle residents who answered the question, “What if we gave you $10? What would you do for someone else?”

The answers were video taped and the TOP 7 IDEAS (as voted by the SMCU staff) have been posted on the www.7principles.coop micro-site where you can vote for the best idea starting October 14th – 19th. The video with the most votes wins a $1,000 grand prize.

You can watch all the videos from the “What if…” Event on SMCU’s YouTube page.

As Principle 7 of Seattle Metro Credit Union’s 7 Principles of Banking with a Co-Op, they emphasize supporting your local community and this campaign fits perfectly with that goal. This is a great example of how a credit union can use a fundamental aspect of their brand and social networking tools to drive awareness, buzz and goodwill within their community without a huge budget.

The Financial Brand has a great article on how they did it and insight from Seattle Metro Credit Union on timing and motivations.

“What Are You Doing?” Let Your Customers Know With Twitter.

Some of you might have heard the story of James Karl Buck who “twittered” his way out of an Egyptian prison. Or how Barack Obama “twitters” to over 88,000 followers and is changing the way politicians communicate with voters.

For those of you who aren’t sure how it works, Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows its members to send text-based messages up to 140 characters (“tweets”) to their circle of friends (“followers”).

Members exchange messages through the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS mobile text messages, RSS, email and applications on other social networking sites.

In addition to celebrities, politicians and everyday people, big businesses like Whole Foods, Zappo’s and Dell all twitter. But can credit unions find a way to use this technology and engage consumers?

Wachovia is a great example of how financial institutions can use Twitter as a cost-effective extension to their current customer support efforts.

Wachovia’s tweets include:

New Promotions Announcements

Customer Care Responses

Updates (on important events like natural disasters or financial news)

Links to Wachovia’s Twitter page are even highlighted directly on their website’s Contact Us page:

Twitter is just one more way Wachovia communicates with its members and creates additional goodwill. Check it out at http://twitter.com/wachovia. You can also read a great article on Wachovia’s use of Twitter to solve customer service issues on NetBanker.com.

Then, open your own Twitter account and try it out.