Walking the walk

OnPoint demonstrates their commitment to education in a very tangible way

OnPoint Community Credit Union was founded 77 years ago by teachers and has always strongly supported education through their community outreach and sponsorship programs.

In order to increase their support of educators, OnPoint decided to create the OnPoint Prize for Excellence in Education. The OnPoint Prize is an annual award that pays an educator’s mortgage or rent for one full year. Educators get nominated by students, parents, other teaches, school administrators, and community members. From the list of nominations, a Selection Committee chooses ten finalists, all of whom receive cash prizes for both themselves and their schools. From this ten, the community votes for their favorite, who wins the “Community Choice” award and the Committee selects four finalists, one of whom becomes the Educator of the Year, winning $5,000 for their school and their mortgage paid for one full year. This was a major undertaking for the credit union and they wanted to make a big splash to announce the annual award program throughout the communities they serve.

They called on Weber Marketing Group to help create the full campaign, which included a microsite, newspaper, web and radio ads, and special promotions to school districts. OnPoint also partnered with KGW, a local NBC affiliate, to create TV spots and greater awareness in the community.

The campaign was hugely successful, produced over 300 nominations and over 21,000 microsite visits. Ten semifinalists were announced on May 17, and on June 3, Tandy Wolf was chosen as the Educator of the Year on a live newscast.

The campaign really helped solidify our commitment to both excellence in education and the communities we serve, according to Kelly Schrader, OnPoint’s VP of Marketing and Client Services. Our partnership with Weber proved invaluable in making this program a success.