Charlotte Metro Credit Union Credit Union
By Joyce Moed, Reporter

CHARLOTTE, N.C.– Charlotte Metro Credit Union has begun a unique advertising campaign that allows for human interaction.

Time Warner Cable customers with specially enabled cable boxes can participate in a campaign that tests interactive television advertising.

The advertising campaign features a 30-second spot with former NBA star Muggsy Bogues shooting baskets while describing how Charlotte Metro CU can help with people’s banking services. Viewers are then given the option of learning more.

This is  how it works:

When a viewer sees the Muggsy spot running on a Time Warner Cable channel, a special overlay is generating, prompting the view to select "A" on his or her remote control to hear Muggsy share more information about Charlotte Metro CU. Pressing "A" during the overlay sends a request, which switches the viewer to a channel playing a nine-minute Charlotte Metro Documentary that describes credit unions and why they are a great alternative to traditional banking, and also tells the history of the Charlotte Metro.

The idea began when Nathan Tothrow, marketing director at Charlotte Metro CU, did research, through focus groups about the community’s knowledge of credit unions.

"We found a tremendous misunderstanding in the community about what credit unions are, and what credit unions offer," he said.

Tothrow said, that as the marketing director, he was left with two challenges: two educate the consumer, and to show the population about credit unions’ better rates.
"I have to do both when I advertise," he said.

Tothrow, who refers to himself as "a big believer in the Internet," said that the Internet is an important advertising channel because "with television, you may get this enormous reaction, but there is no interaction."

He scheduled a meeting with Time Warner, explained his idea of wanting to achieve advertising that allowed for interaction and simply asked "can you help?"

"We came up with a plan to put out a commercial that would link to a documentary offering consumers information about what a credit union is," Tothrow said.

The 30-second commercial is shown often between the primetime television-viewing hours of 6 p.m. and midnight on networks, such as BET, MTV, Oxygen and VH1, with hopes of appealing to a younger audience: a primary goal of 25 to 35 years old, and secondary goal of 18 to 24 years old, Tothrow said.

So far, about 1420 spots have run, Tothrow said, and about 240 have responded to view the documentary.

"I am very happy with that," Tothrow said.

In addition to the 240 who interacted with the television, an additional 400–who do not have the specially enabled cable boxes–clicked manually to channel 1109 after seeing the 30-second commercial.

"The video was loaded 642 times," he said. "That’s about a 47% response rate."

As of right now, the credit union is not tracking if this means new members for the credit union. Instead, he just wants to see if he can attract attention/
"It’s a new technology," he said. "When we yelled out ‘Hey!’ we got 47% that said ‘What?’"
"This is indeed where we are going," Tothrow continued. "Television and the Internet are coming together."