Hawthorne Credit Union created a "Looking Out For You" branding campaign to raise awareness and attract new customers in a competitive market. The campaign used direct mail, newspaper ads, radio spots, and community events to position Hawthorne as caring, trustworthy, and focused on helping customers. The results significantly exceeded expectations, with thousands of new accounts and loans generating millions in new deposits.

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Status: Submitted
Title: Looking Out For You!
Program Overview: Our primary goal was to create a brand for Hawthorne that would create a buzz throughout our target
markets and drive new business to our financial institution. The brand objective was to generate
greater awareness of HCU and establish a feeling of trust and security in our institution while
attracting new consumer accounts in the form of deposits, checking accounts, mortgages and loans.
Our brand results more than exceeded even our most aggressive expectations.
Client Name: Hawthorne Credit Union
Client Contact Name:
Client Contact Title:
Client Phone:
Client Email:
List Key Partners if Applicable:
Concepts Unlimited
Steve Jones, President
1250 Capital of Texas Hwy South
Building Three, Suite 350
Austin, Texas 78746-6457
800-882-5236
cuadvertising.net
Describe the circumstances surrounding the brand at the beginning of the campaign. Address customer/stakeholder
perceptions, competition and any other relevant data:
We're a small, not-for-profit local financial institution serving primarily consumers in a market of big financial players with deep
marketing pockets and vast branching networks, including Bank of America, Chase, and Citibank. Even our smaller, more local
community bank competitors operate with significantly larger marketing budgets than our annual budget of $172,000.
The towns where our two branches are located, Naperville and Bolingbrook, are fairly upscale areas whose residents are prime
targets of all major financial institutions.
Our challenge is to cut through the clutter of our competitors' advertising, along with the multitude of media in the Chicago area.
Factor in our deep-pocket competition with the fact that media costs for a major market like Chicago are far reaching and very
expensive, and what we have is a marketing dilemma.
We conquer this dilemma by using more affordable local community media, as opposed to larger media outlets that create wasted
messages for us. We also use community relations events, such as our free Shred Day events, that have become very popular over
the past few years since we introduced our Looking Out For You campaign.
Describe the audience, objectives, challenges, and the strategy that was chosen.:
Years ago, Hawthorne had very little name recognition within the community. Working with our ad agency, we developed the
branding and tagline "Looking Out For You" to effectively reach our target markets in the Naperville and Bollingbrook areas.
Our "Looking Out For You" tagline helps us tell the story that we may look like other financial institutions on the outside but on the
inside you won't find people more dedicated to helping you navigate your daily financial challenges than Hawthorne. "Looking Out"
helps us differentiate ourselves from the pack.
Our audience is consumers who live within a 2-5 mile radius around our two branch locations, because we know that consumers
often choose their financial institution based on where they live. Our target market is homeowners, age 25-65 with annual household
incomes of $40K and higher.
Further, we faced yet another challenge at the start of this campaign - the Recession. Banks were failing, layoffs were a daily
occurance, the stock market was crashing. It was important that we capture a sizeable share of the deposits that were leaving area
banks and the stock market due to bank failures and the stock market crash.
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2. We also needed to promote the strength and security of the credit union. Communicate that we're still making loans. And reassure
the community that we are a safe place for their money with 75 years of service behind us and the fact we are owned by our
members.
We also translated the Looking Out For You message to into our Community Relations efforts by introducing Shred Days; where we
will shred for free boxes of documents containing personal informtion. These events are held 8 times each year, at both our
locations, and are open to the community, not only to our members. It's a great way for consumers to protect themselves against
identity theft.
Taking "Looking Out For You" a step further, we started our blog in 2008 with a focus on Money Saving Tips. We blog about
everyday ways members can save money, then we post the links on Facebook.
What made your campaign special? What were the unique approaches you took, and how did the tactics added value to
the campaign as a whole?:
With the help our agency, we created a "Looking Out For You" brand buzz in the community through direct mail, newspaper, radio,
statement inserts and in-branch posters, ATM receipts, drive-thru banners, free Shred Day events, web and email.
Our duotone colors create a more friendly, warm, contemporary design. We use member testimonials as headlines and a dutotone
color technique to tie all elements together, generate maximum recall and response to service offers. We featured happy photos of
individuals from different ethnic backgrounds in a "family photo album"-style graphic frame and attention-getting headlines that say
what Hawthorne means to them:
- "At Last" I'm getting what I wanted
- "It's Great" what Hawthorne is doing for me
- "I'm Happy" my financial institution is growing
- "I'm right at home at a financial institution that's looking out for me.....
- "I Wish".... "It's Good"....etc.
Our copy makes it all about the member with the "they care about me" copy strategy. We coordinated a targeted radio and
newspaper buy to the direct mail mailings.
We convey through branding that Hawthorne is a caring, service-driven, friendly and professional
organization trusted for helping people succeed.
We stimulate a sense of excitement and forward momentum by saying "people come to us for great
services and they stay with us because we offer so much more than a bank."
We deliver the message that we are helping members meet the challenges of their daily lives and making their lives better.
MEDIA:
Radio 60-second spots on two local stations reaching our immediate area
Newspaper ads ran in 2009 in smaller, local community newspapers for Naperville and Bolingbrook
Direct mail targeted 7,700 households within 5 miles of a Hawthorne branch.
Inserts were included with member account statements
Lobby posters, drive up envelopes and other point of sale materials were used in lobby
Website banners and email to members were used that coordinate with our campaign.
Social media (Facebook, blog) was used to promote our Money Saving Tips and Shred Day events as a way to demonstrate we're
"Looking Out For You".
What were the quantitative and qualitative results? :
New deposit accounts - We opened 3,894 new accounts with $29.9 million in deposits.
New Loans - We opended 1,369 new loans with $32.1 million.
Checking Accounts - We opened 4,317 new accounts with $13 million in deposits.
Our web hits grew 20% from 10,000 in 2008 to more than 12,000 in 2009.
Good Will - In 2009 we saved 131 trees from our Shred Day efforts, plus safely destroyed documents containing personal
information for nearly 1,000 members and potential members, protecting them from identity theft.
Category *: Smaller-Budget Campaign (less than $250,000 total), Client
Relevant Web links
Our Blog
Our Credit Union's Website
Our Shred Day Calendar 2010
Our Facebook Fan Page
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3. Supporting Materials
PainterLady.pdf
249.93 KB
Safety_Soundness Poster.pdf
1,644.12 KB
HCU Certificate Handout01_09.pdf
1,725.80 KB
Hawthorne
Credit
Union -
Trust
101008
rev.mp3
966.35 KB
Lobby Poster Deposits.JPG
1,871.63 KB
ATM Receipts 2-07.pdf
1,320.96 KB
HCU Certificate Handout01_09.pdf
1,725.80 KB
Auto Refi_Handout1_09.pdf
710.23 KB
ShredDayResults2009.pdf
161.12 KB
Branding drive up banners.JPG
1,930.63 KB
Lobby Poster Auto loans.JPG
2,174.38 KB
Lobby Poster Mortgages.JPG
2,331.14 KB
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