In-School Promotions Advertising within a school is a special challenge. Some tips: 1. Work with students to create promotions. They know what language their classmates will respond to and what will appeal to them. 2. Look for ways a school normally gets its messages out—through newsletters or in-school TV announcements, for instance. 3. Stay in touch with peers who face the same challenges. CUNA’s PF Interactive online network is one place to exchange ideas about student promotions and branch operations. The National Youth Involvement Board network is another. (See Resource List.)
teenagers when we don’t speak (or spell) the same language? When Browne was with Synergy One Federal Credit Union in Manassas, Va., “We serendipitously found one answer,” she says. Several years earlier, the credit union had talked with representatives from Brentsville District High School about setting up an inschool credit union branch. “When talks with the school board stalled, we proposed afterschool workshops on money management topics in partnership with the school’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Club,” Browne says.
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FBLA student officers liked the idea of sponsoring these workshops and immediately took the marketing lead. The students called the programs the “X-treme Money Workshops.” They designed posters in their desktop publishing class and plastered them all over the school. They pitched the workshops personally and made sure that their hungry friends had plenty of food to eat before talking about credit, credit cards, saving, investing, and auto buying. More than 125 students took part in the November, February, and May X-treme Money Workshops. They were so successful that the club took honors in state and national competition for their Partnership with Business Program with the credit union. The teenagers did a remarkable job of peer-to-peer marketing and designing an award-winning entry. As the credit union’s relationship with Brentsville District High School grew, the board of education finally approved a student-run credit union branch. “Knowing what savvy marketers our FBLA partners were, Synergy One Federal’s vice president of marketing, Alison Beckner, asked them
to create radio spots to advertise the ‘Tiger Branch,’ using the school’s PA system during morning announcements,” Browne recalls. Beckner told the students the essential advertising elements they needed to include and asked them to think about radio ads they enjoyed. Working in four-person design groups, students identified their peers’ need for getting money during the school day. Friends who regularly mooched lunch or gas money surfaced as recurring themes. The design groups parlayed these ideas into 30-second ads with catchy phrases and rhymes, mock conversations between friends, and even a clever Tiger Branch rap. When these ads aired as part of the morning announcements, the entire student body instantly learned about the convenience and benefits of the student-run credit union in their school. “There are endless possibilities for fresh ideas guided by the teenagers who work in their studentrun high school branches,” says Browne. Students came up with a unique idea to encourage others to open multiple accounts at the Tiger Branch. They realized the appeal of saving for that all-important rite of passage after high school graduation. Their recommendation: “Beach Week Accounts.” “Now how’s that for tapping into the inner workings of the teenage brain?” Browne asks. Browne uses member penetration to measure success. To set realistic branch goals, every year she meets with involved teachers and students. “I ask them, based on enrollment, ‘What percentage do you think you could reach as new members? Is it 35 a semester?’ I let them think in terms of semesters; it’s not as overwhelming as if they think of the whole year.” The teachers and students usually come up with higher numbers than she thinks they can really achieve, based on past experience, cunapfi.org