Winston-Salem, NC - Look out, Martin Scorcese! Members Credit Union has produced five video shorts to promote the fourth annual online pick-the-winner football contest Football Pick’em. The videos, produced with a handheld camcorder and some simple video editing software, star credit union employees from President/CEO Jack V. Braswell, Jr. and VP-Marketing Eric Stiff to intern Drew Saia.
“Too often, financial institutions seem scared to show their senses of humor – their personalities,” comments Matt Davis, who directed the videos. “These videos are proof perfect that Members Credit Union embraces our differentiating ‘work hard, play hard’ philosophy.”
The videos, accessible from the credit union’s website, were viewed over 2,700 times in their first week. Members Credit Union anticipated high traffic, so they uploaded the videos to YouTube to reduce the strain on the credit union’s servers.
“While the public response has been terrific, a neat by-product has been employee reaction to the videos,” says Braswell. “We won’t win any Oscars for our performances, but we have definitely made people laugh, smile, and think of our credit union in a different light.”
Football Pick’em is a free, online contest the credit union started in 2004 to help identify members who have internet access at home, and can thereby utilize financial products and services electronically. A weekly email is sent out to all players to announce weekly, monthly, and overall winners, and to announce any current promotion happening at the credit union. The game has averaged around 550 players in each of its first four seasons. This year, thanks to online advertising on North Carolina news media websites and the videos, the credit union is anticipating up to 2,000 users.
“Our sights are definitely set high this year,” comments Stiff, who stars in all five videos. “While open to the public, we historically only communicated the contest to our membership. This year, we are viewing this as a member recruitment tool as well.” 
This year, Football Pick’em players can win credit union t-shirts, replica player jerseys, a Compaq desktop computer, a Samsung HDTV, or a Char-Broil gas grill. The contest runs parallel with the professional football season. Hosting at poolhost.com ($700), prizes ($900), and online ads ($1,454) together will cost the credit union just over $3,000 for the nearly six-month promotion.