BrightPath Credit Union: Allocating a $600,000 IMC Budget
BrightPath Credit Union has $1.3 billion in assets and 11 branches. It has a $600,000 annual marketing budget and wants to grow checking accounts among adults aged 25–40. Current media spending is 55% newspaper inserts and radio, 25% branch events, and 20% digital. New-account tracking shows newspaper and radio cost per acquired checking account is $310; digital is $145; branch events are $210. However, digital acquisitions skew toward existing members and lower balances, while newspaper and radio reach more nonmembers. A local TV station offers a $250,000 sponsorship package with 1,200 gross rating points. A digital agency proposes $250,000 for programmatic, search, and social with attribution. The CEO wants brand awareness; the CFO wants measurable account growth; the CMO has no budget for incrementality testing.
1. Evaluate the TV sponsorship and the digital proposal using integrated marketing communication and media-planning criteria. Explain why neither proposal alone is sufficient.
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The TV package offers reach and frequency: 1,200 gross rating points can build awareness among a broad metro audience, which fits the CEO's goal. But it is weak on precise targeting of adults 25–40, has high absolute cost, and offers little account-level attribution. The digital proposal offers targeting, measurable response, and a lower reported cost per account, but its $145 figure is suspect because it skews to existing members and lower balances. Last-click attribution overstates digital's incremental effect. IMC criteria include reach, targeting, frequency, message consistency, cost per outcome, and synergy. TV can create awareness that makes search and social more effective; digital can capture and convert that interest. Running either alone wastes the other's advantage. The correct evaluation is not TV versus digital but how much of each, with a measurement design that separates brand effects from direct response.
2. Recommend a $600,000 allocation and a measurement plan that addresses both the CEO's awareness goal and the CFO's accountability goal.
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A workable allocation is about $240,000 for brand reach, $300,000 for digital direct response, and $60,000 for measurement and creative testing. The brand budget could fund a reduced TV sponsorship or radio and community placements rather than the full $250,000 package, preserving reach without consuming 42% of the budget. Digital should use geo-targeted search, social, and programmatic with unique landing pages and promo codes. Measurement should include a geo holdout: run the brand campaign in selected branch areas and compare funded checking accounts against matched areas with no brand spend. Track 90-day funded accounts and average balances, not clicks or applications. Digital attribution should be validated with a holdout or matched-market test so the agency cannot claim credit for existing-member conversions. This gives the CEO reach evidence and the CFO incremental cost per funded account.
3. Explain how BrightPath should keep its message consistent across channels while still adapting execution to each medium.
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Consistency means one core promise and one recognizable offer across channels. For example, the message could focus on switching to a checking account with no monthly fee and access to real local staff, with the same headline, visual identity, and offer code in TV, radio, digital, and branch materials. Adaptation means changing the execution, not the promise: TV can dramatize the frustration of automated banking; search ads can state the switching offer and branch locator; social can use member testimonials; branch events can provide immediate account opening. Inconsistent offers are a common IMC failure because they confuse prospects and make attribution impossible. BrightPath should also align sales training and branch scripts with the campaign so the experience matches the advertising. Message consistency builds recognition, while execution fit improves relevance in each channel.