Consumers have a ton of choice when it comes to banking due to the ubiquity of financial institutions in our daily lives. How do you differentiate one from another? This can be a challenge for both consumers and marketing agencies.
Sure, a credit union is different from a bank. They’re nonprofits owned by their members for starters. But, how do you set one credit union apart from another? That takes a strong organization and a little creativity.
When Visions Federal Credit Union was looking for a new campaign a few years ago, we turned our attention inward to find a unique selling point. Savings? Check. Checking? Yep. Loans? Of course. But, what could set them apart?
Well, thankfully, Visions is a different credit union with an uncommonly strong commitment to the numerous communities it serves. They do more than just make donations (although they do make an unusually high number of those). They have programs that encourage employees to give back. They do random acts of kindness for the entire public and not just members. Visions is just different.
So, rather than focus on the same old, same old savings, checking and loans, ABC thought beyond the typical ads with interest rates and decided to highlight all that community service. A concept called Visions Cares was born.
Visions Cares celebrates all the credit union does for its members and the community at large. As part of the campaign, we decided to feature some of their favorite causes carefully selected from the key markets they serve in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Each broadcast spot and complementary print ad is a vignette of that organization with a subtle sign-off that expresses Visions’ support of the initiative. So far, we’ve gotten the opportunity to feature great causes from David’s Refuge in Central New York to the Ethan and the Bean coffee shop in northern New Jersey. Vines of Binghamton and Habitat for Humanity of Reading, Pennsylvania, are the two others that have been featured so far. Learn more about them in the commercial series that, like the great organizations featured, continues to grow.