Description:

Genesis
I have described Operation : Cooperation as a “large, multimedia, sweepstakes/web-and-PR-event,” but even that doesn’t quite do it justice. Each year, the credit union showcases one of the Seven Cooperative Principles in some big way in order to create a tangible, meaningful explanation of each principle. The first year it was Principle #2, Voice, demonstrated with an invitation for members to redesign their debit card. The second year Principle #3, Community, took center stage with a headline-grabbing, movement-starting “Pay-It-Forward” event. Then in 2009 we thought of a great way to demonstrate Principle #6, Cooperation. That was the inspiration.

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.

So what do you think?