Details
The event kicked off with a post card and email sent to hundreds of small groups, co-ops, and non-profits around western Washington, asking them this question: “How do you come together and share a resource?” Each group had to submit a creative project that demonstrated the answer to this question (essentially, “How do you cooperate?”). The project could be in any format or genre. All of the projects were showcased on a super interactive gallery website coded from scratch by Belyea.

Awards The credit union gave out 4 “Cooperative Spirit Awards”. The winner of the Gold Award was selected by a public vote on the opcoop.coop website. The three other awards – Creative, Social Media, Shoestring – were selected by a panel of judges, composed of representatives from each of SMCU’s six non-profit Feel Good Checking partners. The award plaques themselves were beautiful works of art.

Social Media
The campaign was promoted virally through a simple, unpretentious approach, using Twitter and an “email a friend” link on the website, both of which were very effective. Through the opcoop Twitter account we sought out hundreds of non-profit groups who were also using the medium to network and self-promote. More than any other medium, the Twitter connections generated interest in the campaign and traffic to the site. Twitter also provided a convenient tool for communicating contest updates to participants. Additional media promotion and inspiring ideas came from the good folks at JayRay Communications Consultancy.

Resource Day with Reel Grrls
The public, in-person face of “Op:Co-op” was a remarkable event we created in partnership with a truly amazing non-profit called Reel Grrls. The staff and volunteers of Reel Grrls made their computers, cameras and directing talent available to participants who lacked the means to film, photograph or upload their creative project. This fun, catered event was well attended, and the myriad technical details came together beautifully. As projects were filmed and photographed, the entries were simultaneously formatted and uploaded to the opcoop.coop website. With some help from JayRay, the team tweeted from the event and streamed photos to a Flickr account that then appeared instantly on the opcoop website.

Design
Working with the best elements of our “Intentionally Left Bank” and “Come Together” outdoor campaigns, Belyea created a logo and identity for the event, and put together a complicated, feature-rich, interactive website. Astoundingly, all of this came together in under two months. Content, copy, printed collateral, emails and dynamic videos were all created by our team in house. As entries poured in, the SMCU creative team also designed beautiful gallery images for each one at a relentless, exhausting pace.

Effects
Beyond the direct beneficent results for the credit union, OpCo-op helped to further establish and clarify SMCU’s brand as “the co-op’s financial institution,” and “the 7 Principles credit union.” The campaign succeeded in creating numerous memorable metaphors of the credit union’s cooperative business model, thus explaining in a meaningful way the institution’s most important differentiator. But what made the project even more satisfying for everyone was the opportunity to showcase dozens of local groups who might not have otherwise gotten this kind of exposure.

The second board in the series

The third in the series, designed by Belyea, inspired by rock climbing ropes

An early sketch for the third execution. Ron's is better.

The concept. This campaign followed the very striking but sparse “Intentionally Left Bank” campaign. We kept the pleasing bold font, the clean minimalism, and the subtle name cloud that represents the cumulative potential of the members. This concept introduced more bright, fun colors and a new three-part message that was meant to both explain and intrigue. It’s almost a haiku:

come together.
share a resource.
bank cooperatively.

This simple co-op manifesto (mantra?) was the lead-up to a large, multimedia, sweepstakes/web-and-PR-event called Operation Cooperation. OpCo-op, as we called it, was a celebration of local non-profits and the Spirit of Cooperation; a colorful, living metaphor for the credit union business model; and a demonstration of SMCU as “the co-op’s financial co-op.”

The scandal! In February of 2010, some bus ads for AAA started appearing all over town. Please note the powerful use of negative space and the Rockwell font. No shame in their game.

Here is their ad, unflatteringly captured by my phone

Coincidence?

But the highlight of this campaign was when the shirts came out. We invited our members to tell us about why they “Intentionally Left Bank” and we sent each submitter a free shirt in the mail. The response was truly impressive. It was clear that a huge number of our members had been literally Chased away from their old bank by unreasonable fees and impersonal service.

Here is a great write-up from Jeffry Pilcher of the Financial Brand.

The beautiful name montage was designed by CJ Kipper.

The music is by musical genius and budding superstar, Joshua Frazier of Go Periscope.

Here’s the MAP website

For more than a month we received over 300 photographs and designs. Credit union staff voted for their favorite 7 and those were posted on the Web site so the entire membership could cast their vote for a winner. Member Megan Smith won the contest with her photo of the Seattle skyline at night. SMCU debit cards now carry her image, and she also won a brand new Canon Rebel xti digital camera.

Megan's winning design

This video below, explaining the promotion, was created by JayRay consultants in Tacoma, WA. CJ Kipper designed the interactive voting web site and most of the print collateral for the “SPEAK” promotion. I designed the postcard that we mailed to our members.

And of course we were, such being the pioneer spirit SMCU. Squeezing out a 25-basis-point discount and lining up all of the policies and procedures were all part of this unprecedented Marketing initiative. We did not immediately offset all of our carbon the same weekend, nor did we convert our coffee maker to solar power or force our staff to wear uniforms made of hemp and bamboo. And members were OK with that. They could personally related to our situation of being at square one with earnest intentions of making real changes every day.

Since the green loan discount rolled out, the credit union has formed a committee, installed compost bins, changed hundreds of light bulbs and created numerous innovative green programs. Being among the first to offer green loans was a wise choice. It helped us attract some interesting partners and PR opportunities that we might not have been offered if we had waited on the sidelines.

But anyway, here are a few ads I wrote for US Cellular. These were produced in English and Spanish.

BUSQUEDA
SnowyDays_Engl
SnowyDays_Span

Surprise