News Release

Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union’s recent “What if … ?” event in downtown Seattle made a national splash.

CNN, Credit Union Journal and Credit Union Times publicized the event along with TV stations in Los Angeles and North Carolina. Locally, Northwest Cable News and Seattle TV stations including KING, KOMO, KIRO, KCPQ and KONG, covered the Oct. 6 event, along with Seattle print media and AM and FM radio stations.

Media started calling the credit union four days before the event — before the media release had even been distributed. An excited partner of the credit union’s received an electronic event invitation asking people how they would give back to the community and forwarded it to a local Seattle television station.

JayRay, a Tacoma communications agency, and SMCU’s marketing staff teamed up to spread the news to the rest of the media. Three days prior and at 4:45 a.m. before the event, JayRay was on-hand pitching the story and SMCU was ready to receive media calls. The resulting media coverage is valued at $250,000.

SMCU employees prepared for the “What if … ?” event wearing bright orange shirts displaying the credit union’s Web site and logo. When the JayRay team arrived to greet the media, a line of eager participants had already formed outside the credit union before the event began.

The crowd of excited people was there to answer one question for an online video:

“If we gave you $10, what would you do for somebody else?”

Participants were given the cash to pass on to someone in need and the videos were posted on the credit union’s Web site, drawing more curious potential credit union members to the site (http://www.7principles.coop) to see what their friends had to say. The best video will be selected by the public and one person will get $1,000 to fulfill their idea.

The event was designed to showcase the credit union’s philanthropy efforts as part of its 7 principles campaign. The 7 principles describe the operating philosophy SMCU has adopted.

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