Young & Free: FS Vendor’s Product of the Week

Please give a short bio of your company

Currency is the leading integrated marketing agency for credit unions. We help credit unions stand out in the crowded, homogenous financial services marketplace with our proven marketing programs.

What is your product or service?

Young & Free

Please give a brief synopsis of the product/service

We help credit unions close the age gap with our proven Young & Free marketing program. Young & Free is an innovative, social media meets product promotion meets user-generated-content campaign that is achieving significant on-going success for credit unions in the US and Canada.

It’s a proven recipe for success. A voice in the form of a hired Young & Free Spokesperson. A head start in the form of a market-leading young adult account package. And useful information in the form of daily blog posts, weekly videos and a constantly growing collaborative catalog of rich content delivered on dedicated regional microsites and on the social web.

Why would a bank or credit union use your product/service?

There is a decade-plus age gap in the credit union industry. While the average age of a North American is 37 years old, the average age of a credit union member is almost 50. Credit unions are not replacing maturing depositors with young borrowers fast enough.

It’s not looking good. Gen Y is your credit union’s future, they just don’t know it. Attracting the next generation of credit union members needs to move from the back burner to a strategic imperative. Credit unions that continue to ignore this issue will not exist in 20 years.

Your credit union doesn’t have to fade into the history books. With Young & Free, your credit union has the potential to not only stop its membership decline, but to add hundreds of brand new young adult members.

Who is your competition, and what do you do better?

There are numerous marketing programs aimed at helping credit unions attract young adult members. The difference with Young & Free is that it is full blast. There is a dedicated employee who is creating content daily and who is out in the community interacting with members and potential members.

We push all of our clients to offer a market-leading product to compliment the marketing program. This is critical to success.

Another advantage is the network effect. There are now active programs in two Canadian provinces and seven US states. The credit unions involved work together and share best practices.

To date, more than 65,000 credit union members have opened products associated with Young & Free.

Are there different pricing levels? Do you offer a free version?

The Young & Free program is licensed on a monthly basis with an initial one year commitment. We do not offer a free version, but we do offer a paid diagnostic to see if the program is a fit for a credit union. Should the credit union decide to proceed, this fee is applied to the monthly contract.

We offer one exclusive license in each region. Regions are defined geographically by provincial and state borders. The first qualifying credit union or group of credit unions in each region to sign an agreement will secure regional rights to the program.

When was the product/service officially launched?

2007

What is the number of current users? Estimated yearly growth?

There are now active programs in two Canadian provinces and seven US states with two of the US states being groups of credit unions. With these groups, the total number of participating credit unions is 91.

What type of help support is offered?

The program is fully managed by a program director. Each of our program directors manage a maximum of four clients, so there is a tremendous amount of time and attention given to each client.

What else is interesting about your product/service?

The biggest accolade to date was the Forrester Research Groundswell Award for best social media marketing campaign. In this category, Young & Free beat out campaigns from General Motors, Rubbermaid, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, American Express, Sears and Intuit.