Challenge.

Launch a new brand for Citadel Credit Union, while expanding geography, driving new leads to their CRM and increasing overall account openings. This launch was pushed back from the Spring of 2020 due to the pandemic, but eventually launched in the Fall of 2020.

Process.

MSM Insights provided past historical data to understand media impact on account openings. Additionally, the strategy team at MSM had to understand the shifting media habits that occurred during the pandemic and how that impact would affect campaigns running in the Fall of 2020. Lastly, an analysis was done to understand the impact of spreading the budget across a larger geography.

Approach.

The plan recommendation included out-of-home advertising which had rarely been used by Citadel in the past. It was determined that out-of-home, along with a strong digital presence, in the expanded geography would allow for efficient reach of the audience on a limited budget. The limitations on out-of-home exposure that were in place early on in the pandemic was not an impact come the Fall and an attribution study on out-of-home exposure to visitation to Citadel’s website was put in placement to confirm impact. The Out-of-Home campaign and strong digital presence was combined with a video campaign, which included a heavier mix of Prime TV than typically was used by Citadel, and an audio campaign.

Results.

Since the launch of the campaign in the Fall of 2020:

  • New Member Checking accounts, which were a major focus of the product messaging during the launch period, grew 25%.
  • CRM leads steadily grew throughout the launch period eventually hitting a 66% increase in January of 2021 compared to August 2020.
  • The Out-of-Home Attribution Study showed that consumers exposed to the billboard campaign were 36% more likely to have visited Citadel’s site than those not exposed to the billboard campaign.
25
% growth in new
checking accounts