LEXINGTON, Ky.–Additional details have been shared around how one credit union was able to recruit a person who’s infamous within its market area and get him to appear in a creative television commercial that stresses he’s the one person not eligible to join.
As the CU Daily reported here, University of Kentucky FCU introduced its new ad during the Super Bowl that stressed its membership is open to “All, y’all,” with the exception of Christian Laettner, the former Duke University basketball star who even 34 years later is infamous among UK Wildcat fans for his last-minute buzzer beater to eliminate Kentucky 104-103 in overtime from the 1992 NCAA basketball tournament.
“With the name of UK Credit Union, a lot of people obviously and naturally think that you’ve got to be associated with UK Credit Union or (with) the University Kentucky to be part of the credit union,” UKFCU Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Miller told the Lexington Herald-Leader in an interview. “And that’s not the case.”
Brainstorming Ideas
The focus of the UK Credit Union’s current marketing is to educate potential members that they do not have to have a direct tie to UK to open accounts, hence the tag line, “For All Y’all,” the report stated.
According to the Herald-Leader, ad maker Jason Epperson of Eppic Films said he and his creative team were brainstorming ways to get the point across that the UK Credit Union was open to everyone when the idea was hatched that it should build an ad around someone who would not be welcome to open an account.
“One of my guys (Seth Graham) was like ‘We still hate Laettner,’” Epperson told the Herald-Leader, which added that Miller said marketers at the UKFCU had actually first envisioned using Laettner in an advertisement more than a year ago. “
To get Laettner on board, Epperson told the Herald Leader he tried to reach out to the former Duke star via various contacts before finally contacting a friend, former Kentucky guard Cameron Mills, for help.
‘Working Out a Deal’
“I said, ‘What’s the chances you have Christian Laettner’s phone number?’ And sure enough, (Mills) had it,” Epperson told the Herald Leader. “I reached out (to Laettner) and he connected me with his agent. Next thing you know, we’re working out a deal.”
In the commercial, Maria Montgomery, the Kentucky-based television presenter and model, assures a woman in a yoga class, then a photographer and next a country music trio, that they can all open accounts at the UK Federal Credit Union.
The ad then switches to a gymnasium where Laettner is shown shooting a shot from the spot where he hit the game winner more than three decades ago.
“How about me?” Laettner asks, referencing to UKFCU membership.
Everyone who previously appeared in the ad says “no.”
‘Laughed a Lot’
“We shot for about an hour. That’s about all it took to shoot it,” Epperson told the Herald Leader. “(Laettner) laughed a lot, and it just seemed he really enjoyed (the) experience of being a part of it.”
The ad, which ran only in Lexington, debuted during the Super Bowl, and social media was captivated.
“We had, within the first hour, over 400,000 social media views,” Miller stated, adding that running the ad locally during the Super Bowl cost in the “$20,000 range.”
The ad can be viewed here.
