Membership growth is the biggest challenge facing our credit union clients. Even though banks are setting new records in profit extraction, most people are still unaware of the everyday, real-life benefits of credit union membership.

We designed Power 1 Credit Union’s “Scratch Scratch” campaign around a direct mail postcard sent to members. The center of the postcard contained a scratch-off area showing what the member would receive for referring a new member (an eligible friend or relative) to the credit union. The scratch-off was an effective way to encourage participation, even though they all revealed the same $100. And in a fun twist, both the referring member and the new member would be entered in a drawing for one of ten big-screen TVs. If either name was drawn, both would win a TV.

The idea originated around the incredible cultural diversity found in Miami and in Power 1’s members. The one thing all the traditional cultures have in common is a heavy focus on family connections and connections to neighbors and communities. This piece showed members a new way to make and reinforce these connections — they could do something for themselves by referring a new member, and at the same time they would be doing something equally nice for their relative or friend.