Just before the Great Depression, the Immaculate Conception Credit Union was founded in the basement of Fitchburg’s Immaculate Conception church. Today, IC Federal Credit Union makes bloody marketing videos featuring zombies.

Just as the transition to the IC Federal name was an adaptation to changing times, the production of animated YouTube videos to promote the institution and its products is a way to try to keep up with the quickly changing tastes and attitudes of the under-30 set.

Young people are in what are sometimes called their "prime borrowing years," and the credit union industry has been aggressive recently in trying to steal market share from banks, especially big banks.

The whole "bank transfer day" concept pushed by the credit union industry last year didn’t result in big gains for IC Federal, according to Senior Vice President of Marketing Judy Kaddy. The off-beat, clever and generally amusing videos IC has produced are a way to get away from that kind of overt salesmanship.

No Hard Sell

"It is not the hard sell," Kaddy told Banker & Tradesman. "It is to educate, and the research shows that what Gen X or Gen Y wants is to be educated in order to make purchases down the road, and in future videos coming out, we are not about selling. That has to be top of mind."

Jim Pond, founder of Compassed, the Gardner-based creative services firm hired by IC to produce the videos, said there’s something else about young folks credit unions would do well to know: Once they enter a relationship with an institution like a bank or credit union, "they are likely to stay with you for a long time."

The challenge, as it has always been, is getting them through the door in the first place.

Generations X and Y – people aged roughly 18 to 35 – have been living with the internet for all or most of their lives. They recognize right away when they see old-fashioned marketing poorly dressed up to appear hip. So it’s not hard to see where this would cause problems for institutions that use their age (old) as the cornerstone of their marketing efforts.

IC Federal’s videos "are a stark departure from where most financial institutions go," Pond told Banker & Tradesman.

That may be an understatement.

Sausage-Making

So far, IC Federal has released an animated video comparing big banks to ghastly interplanetary robots, and the aforementioned zombie video – which aims to teach customers about life insurance by demonstrating in graphic detail how life insurance will provide for your family if you should be killed and eaten during a zombie apocalypse.

"If we don’t do this, no one is going to pay attention," Pond said. "For content, the internet is a graveyard, and with a generation that is very conscious of when it’s being sold something, you have to push the envelope. We could’ve taken these things much, much, much further, but we need to balance the needs of the credit union."

Soon, IC Federal will release a musical video that explains budgeting, and a clay-mation video that explains saving, and is "as borderline risqué as (IC Federal) would allow us to go," Pond said. "We pitched it three times. The first one was way out there. We want to keep it interesting, but we don’t want to alienate people."

The two released so far have had the opposite effect. IC Federal’s membership among the 18-30 crowd has increased 16 percent since the videos were released, according to Marketing Administrative Coordinator Pati Maguy. IC Federal has seen a 35 percent increase in "Gen Y" membership since last summer.

"When we first came up with this concept, we really didn’t know how it was going to be received, or how it was going to take off. Gen Y is not known for being loyal customers," Monica Turner, marketing coordinator, told Banker & Tradesman.

"I am not Gen Y," Kaddy said. "And the first time I saw zombies and blood, I thought ‘Oh, my god.’ I called my daughter, who’s 32, and said, ‘have you heard of zombies?’ and she said, ‘of course.’"

"Clients only see that one great idea," Pond said. "But it’s really a sausage-making process. To IC’s credit, when they see something like this, they say ‘our advertising isn’t about our company, it’s about our user group.’"