Elevations Credit Union in Boulder, Colorado, is trying out a new marketing strategy that, if successful, will boost its membership while financially supporting local college athletes.
The credit union’s approach could offer a new blueprint for financial institutions that want to take advantage of recent rule changes allowing college athletes to get paid.
Elevations is the official credit union of the University of Colorado Boulder — where former National Football League superstar-turned-coach Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes football team are trying to clinch a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game.
This week, Elevations rolled out a credit card that will contribute to a name, image and likeness collective for the university’s athletes. The credit union said it will donate the card’s $49 annual fee to the collective, as well as two cents for every transaction that’s made using the “Go Buffs Visa Signature Rewards Card.”
The $3.3 billion-asset credit union, which was founded 72 years ago, is a longtime sponsor of both scholarships at the university and its home football and basketball games. Of the credit union’s178,000 members, more than 20,000 are CU Boulder students, faculty, staff and alumni.
But this is the first time that Elevations is getting involved in a name, image and likeness initiative, said Wendy Beswick, who joined the credit union as its chief marketing officer two years ago.
The deal, which has been rolled into Elevations’ existing contract with CU Boulder, is a collaboration between the credit union, CU Boulder’s athletics department and Learfield, a collegiate sports marketing firm that’s involved in other name, image and likeness agreements.
“This is a really fresh and exciting way for fans to directly support the players and teams they really love,” Beswick said. “It’s a broad way to support all athletes playing for the university.”
It also positions the credit union, which mainly serves Colorado-based customers, to reach “a much wider audience” inside and outside of the state, and deepen its relationships, she said.
“We’re working, as I think all credit unions are, to build relationships that last a lifetime,” she said.
Plugging into name, image and likeness opportunities in collegiate sports appears to be a growing trend among banks and credit unions. Prior to 2021, college athletes could only receive school-funded scholarships, but following a change in rules by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, they can now receive payment for a wide variety of activities such as autographs, memorabilia, personal appearances, podcasting and public speaking.
Some banks dove right in, setting up deals with individual college athletes and sometimes their agents, according to Allyson Twiggs, a former collegiate athlete and founder of a bank marketing agency in Fayetteville, Arkansas, that works with community banks.
More recently, the emphasis has shifted to pooling money into name, image and likeness collectives as a way to spread the money around to more athletes, including women.
Athletic departments are prohibited from administering the collectives, according to NCAA rules. CU Boulder said it is partnering with an entity called the 5430 Alliance to disperse the funds. The alliance is a collective that serves all 11 sports at the university.
Twiggs said she is impressed by Elevations’ strategy. It could spur similar deals by other banks and credit unions, she said.
“It’s kind of a unique collaboration, and if it works, I can see more banks jumping on this,” she said. “You get to be part of the university. You get naming and advertising opportunities. And then you get the community involved, so it’s like, ‘Let’s do this together.’ I think this is sort of clever.”
The approach to name, image and likeness marketing deals varies by financial institution.
Last month, Service 1st Federal Credit Union in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, signed a five-year contract extension to continue its sponsorship of Bucky the Bison, Bucknell University’s mascot.
The $689 million-asset Service 1st, which is based about 30 minutes from Bucknell and first signed a name, image and likeness deal with the university in 2022, pays students for portraying Bucky at school and community events.
On the same day that Elevations announced its new credit card, Banterra Bank in Marion, Illinois, announced its own name, image and likeness partnership with Southern Illinois University. The community bank said it would donate a portion of the revenue from an affinity debit card to name, image and likeness efforts, as well as to scholarships at the university.
The $3 billion-asset bank is starting with four college athletes — two on the Southern Illinois men’s basketball team, one on the women’s basketball team and one women’s softball player — whose hometowns are in Banterra’s markets. In exchange for the financial support, the athletes will do voiceovers for Banterra radio and television advertisements, Jennifer Spence, the bank’s director of marketing, said in an email.
The deal includes $50,000 in scholarships — 10 scholarships for $5,000 apiece — with the remaining funds going to name, image and likeness purposes, bringing the bank’s total commitment to more than $100,000, Spence said. The agreement is an amendment to Banterra’s naming-rights contract for Banterra Center, the university’s arena, she added.
At Elevations, the new credit card offers some attractive perks for fans of the Colorado Buffaloes, including a 3% cash-back deal on purchases from select university merchants and 2% cash back on gas and phone plans. Card holders also get a $150 bonus if they spend $2,000 during the first 90 days of opening the card.
A University of Colorado Boulder spokesperson declined to say exactly how many of its athletes are involved in name, image and likeness deals. But the agreements “are wide-ranging with a large variety of partners from local to national brands,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Beswick did not say how much money Elevations has spent to launch the new card. But there’s “a pretty comprehensive marketing effort” involving traditional and digital media and social media influencers, including Sanders and other coaches, she said.