What do the Detroit Lions, the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department, and a Wyoming orchestra have in common? They’ve all teamed up with local credit unions to expand resources and services.
As the industry continues to grow, more credit unions are turning to sponsorships and naming rights as a way to demonstrate their role as financial resources and change-makers in the communities they serve. The best sponsorships reflect a credit union’s core values and strategic objectives, but savvy credit unions don’t just slap their name on anything — they strive for partnerships that reflect their mission, resonate with the people they’re trying to reach, and help them achieve multiple goals.
For their roles in the sponsorships above, Community Financial Credit Union ($1.6B, Plymouth, MI), First City Credit Union ($906.6M, Altadena, CA), and Western Vista FCU ($264.8M, Cheyenne, WY) are deepening community engagement, building better brand recognition, differentiating themselves from competitors, and more.
“There are many worthy causes and groups to sponsor,” says Royce Ngiam, who brought two decades of credit union marketing experience with him when he joined First City as its CMO last December. “It might be hard to sift through, but once you value the right things, it’s honestly pretty simple.”
Sponsorships — especially with local schools and community-based causes and organizations — can help solve local problems while building meaningful, authentic connections, even if a measurable impact to the bottom line doesn’t emerge quickly.
“It’s OK to support something that doesn’t immediately lead to those new members or new opportunities,” Ngiam says. “That’s how we learn, and it’s fun.”
Indeed, worthy sponsorships offer benefits beyond the bottom line. They also engage employees and help the organization build deeper relationships with those who live in their community.
In Wyoming, Western Vista’s long list of sponsorships range from the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra to the Casper Spuds baseball team, from anti-hunger campaigns to Hunting with Heroes Wyoming. Employee participation is an important element to all of its sponsorships, lifting spirits much more than a financial contribution alone would.
“Western Vista doesn’t want to be a sponsor that merely writes a check,” says Lorrell Walter, who has led marketing at Western Vista for the past eight years. “We look for sponsorship opportunities where our staff can be involved.”
To encourage involvement — which can include volunteering for causes, presenting financial literacy lessons, competing in sponsored activities at community events, or more — Western Vista has in place a “track it forward” platform that allows peers to recognize one another for volunteerism. Employees who volunteer at least 100 hours per year earn a Top Volunteer plaque. Perks like this underscore the importance Western Vista places in improving its community and humanizes the credit union for those it serves.
More Than Just A Sponsorship
Deep Impact
Innovative credit unions are applying their capabilities and resources in new ways to add value to their sponsorships. In Michigan, Community Financial’s partnership with the Detroit Lions carries particular resonance with the suburban Detroit institution’s membership.
“Partnerships for us are less about a specific event and more an opportunity to co-create impact,” says Tansley Stearns, president and CEO of Community Financial. “We intentionally look for organizations with shared values that come to the table with us to solve a problem in ways we couldn’t do separately from each other.”
The credit union’s partnership with the Detroit Lions includes touchdown celebrations at Ford Field — complete with shooting T-shirts out of a cannon — as well as a stand on Pride Plaza that promotes the credit union’s Impossible Dreams program that presents winners with football jersey, game tickets, and other prizes.
If this level of sponsorship sounds intimidating, Stearns reminds leaders there’s a natural fit for credit unions and beloved sports teams at every level.
“Every credit union was born from people with a shared affinity,” the CEO says. “Translating this to school colors and sports is so primal. In our case, the shared affinity goes beyond geographical presence. Our values are aligned, and the visibility that credit unions garner with prominent sports partnerships bring value and connection for our membership.”
Stearns says CFCU’s partnership with the Detroit Lions originated from a series of focus group conversations. Specifically, when people answered the question, ‘What are the marks of a true Michigander?’ their answers included constants like hardworking, gritty, and down-to-earth. Plus, diehard Lions fans.
“As we shaped our new set of values to represent Community Financial in our community, the team articulated the following: We Create Belonging, Relentless Care, Hustle + Grind, and Huzzah!” Stearns says. “The Lions’ remarkable resemblance to who we aim to be as an organization serving Michiganders set us on a path to pursuing this collaboration with our beloved Detroit Lions.”
How Do You Make A Difference? Sponsorships and naming rights are helping credit unions demonstrate their commitment to the communities they serve. With the right leadership skillset, your credit union can identify what’s important and outperform the market — and Callahan can help. Join the hundreds of credit union leaders who have learned how to put purpose first. Learn more today.
Brand Equity And Market Differentiation
It can be challenging to generate meaningful sponsorship opportunities and qualitatively measure their success.
For the second part, Stearns advises credit union marketers to watch for the lead and lag indicators from every event.
For example, lead indicators for Community Financial include the quantity and quality of Impossible Dream submissions, the timing of those submissions, and the reaction to the stories it tells about those submissions. Lag indicators, on the other hand, reflect standard credit union practices like product adoption, membership growth, core deposit growth, and development leads.
First City is all about building on top of successful sponsorships to create future opportunities. Such a strategy results in differentiation in a crowded marketplace but also requires creative thinking. Ngiam has a solution to that.
“One of my favorite exercises is to ask the team to write down their top 10 ideas — say, SEG sponsorships,” the CMO says. “After they’ve written them down, I have them crumple up the paper, throw it away, and then write down the next 10 ideas. The first were too easy. The next 10 — there’s a gem in there somewhere.”
Western Vista is also all about taking the long view.
“Just 10 years ago, the Western Vista name had no brand equity,” Walter says. “People in our community didn’t know what service Western Vista provided. Many people thought it was a retirement home. Today, the Western Vista name is well known in the communities we serve.”