The Irish League of Credit Unions came to us with a problem – despite being the most trusted brand in the country (in stark contrast to their financial institution competitors), it wasn’t enough to cut customer apathy. They needed a way to stand out in a busy sector and drive loan enquiries, becoming top of mind for a younger, disengaged audience. ILCU had 3.5 million members on the island of Ireland, but the vast majority had been inactive for years. So we decided to speak directly to the millions of people north and south of the border who had walked away from their local credit union. Our ‘Credit Reunion’ platform was launched to tackle this head on.
So we launched a nationwide campaign to find and bring back one long-dormant member, named Dan Byrne, before inviting the nation to reunite with their local credit union. It began with an online video, with Pat Higgins, Head of Credit ReUnion, launching a plea to Dan to return. But we didn’t stop there. During the week-long search, outdoor ads began appearing up and down the country along with local guerrilla posters hung in local branches, complete with a hotline number to call for anyone with information on Dan. Finally, Dan was reunited with his local credit union, and our attentions turned on the next dormant member, bringing them back one by one. Our TVCs told the story of lapsed members preparing for their own Credit ReUnions. A dream-like absurdity and comic tone allowed us to to include direct tactical messaging, packaged as soft, brand advertising that stood apart from generic comms more commonly associated with the sector. Meanwhile, our OOH campaign spoke to (fictional) individual lapsed members, honestly owning the fact that they’d moved away from their local credit union, and asking them to come back for a ‘Credit ReUnion’. The campaign delivered a 26% increase in the value derived from loan enquires, with an increase of loan enquire leads totalling €12.1m for the island of Ireland.
