MAC Conference 2026

The tools available to marketers have changed fast. Automated campaigns. Hyper-personalized journeys. AI-generated content. Purchasing agents that buy products on behalf of consumers. Every competitor your credit union faces, from national banks to fintechs, now has access to this technology.

As more organizations adopt the same tools, their marketing starts to look, sound, and feel the same. Members are paying closer attention to which brands feel like real organizations with real people behind them.

Credit union marketers have an advantage here: your community presence, your member relationships, your ability to show up as real people in the real world. These are hard to automate and hard to find.

In this interactive session, you’ll explore the forces reshaping marketing, see how leading organizations are responding, and walk away with practical ways to use new technology to compete while leaning harder into the human connection that members already value.

Credit unions are under pressure to grow and engage membership while competing with fintech. This session pulls back the curtain on several real, launched digital campaigns from a credit union serving both community and SEG members. From push notifications to CTV, radio, and affiliate marketing, we’ll show the actual creative behind each tactic and break down what worked, what fell short, and where gaps emerged.

Attendee takeaways include:

• Practical digital campaign examples used to reach both community and SEG members.

• High-impact strategies to drive brand awareness, acquisition, and increase product adoption.

• Performance benchmarks and clear takeaways to apply to future campaigns.
  

The strongest credit union marketing doesn’t feel like marketing at all—it feels like help. In a world of automation, personalization, and AI-generated content, trust is still built through empathy, clarity, and service-driven messaging.

This session reframes marketing through the lens of the credit union mission, showing how teams can create campaigns, content, and experiences that genuinely serve members first. Through real examples and practical insight, attendees will learn how to align marketing efforts with member needs, community values, and long-term relationship building—without sacrificing performance or growth.

Top Takeaways

• How to evaluate marketing messages through a “member service” mindset

• Ways to balance performance goals with authenticity and trust

• Practical ideas for creating marketing that feels human, helpful, and mission-aligned

Every week, there's more news of cuts in newsrooms nationwide, and U.S. newspapers close at the rate of 1 a week. Yet coverage by your local news outlets continues to shape the reputation of your credit union, online and in the community. Understaffed newsrooms open up opportunities for organizations that are proactive in their approach to media relations, transparent in their interactions with reporters, and never say 'no comment.'"

In this session, you will learn:

• How to build a positive relationship that will move your name to the top of a reporter's call list.

• What to do when a reporter calls.

• Tips and techniques to take turn media interviews into an opportunity to tell your credit union's story. 

Self-promotion in your career is not optional, it’s essential. The sooner you get comfortable with telling your story, promoting your successes and be able to communicate your value, the better results you will see.

The session will cover

• How to use language and words that highlight your best qualities

• How to bring your input to life and celebrate your achievements without feeling arrogant

• How to communicate your experience to build your reputation and profile

• Confidently communicate the value you bring

Gen Z doesn’t need another financial institution trying to sound cool. They want experiences that are fast, useful, digital-first, and on their terms. In this session, James Dawson and Laurie Flanders share how Alta Vista Credit Union approaches Gen Z engagement with a simple mindset: stop explaining who you are and start proving value through action, or they’ll move on without hesitation.

Rather than guessing what younger members want, Alta Vista looks at real behavior: how Gen Z uses digital tools, when they engage, and where friction causes drop-off. With Strum Platform, the team connects behavioral data, engagement patterns, and predictive insights to create outreach and experiences that feel natural, not forced. James and Laurie will break down what actually works, what doesn’t, and how credit unions can build real relevance with Gen Z without gimmicks, stereotypes, or wasted effort.

In a crowded financial marketplace, many credit unions struggle with messaging that feels authentic, differentiated, and relevant to today’s media and consumer environment. This session explores why GoWest identified a critical need to revamp credit union messaging—and how a clearer, values-driven framework has helped credit unions connect more meaningfully with their members, communities, elected officials and the media.

Using real-world examples, including collaborative work with participating credit unions, this session will highlight how intentional messaging can:

• Shift perception and build goodwill with key audiences.
  

• Turn potentially negative or neutral announcements into trust-building moments
  

• Bring members into the conversation rather than alienating them during challenging situations
  

• Attendees will leave with practical guidance and examples they can adapt to strengthen their own credit union’s voice."

Your website is the hub of your credit union’s digital branch. But is it doing its job? Is it effectively communicating what makes your credit union unique, converting prospects, and engaging existing members? Whether you’re interested in refreshing your current website or have a more major redesign on the horizon, join us to take a peek behind the curtain of two websites that won 2025 Gold MAC Awards in the Website Transformation category.

You’ll learn:

• How to set a website transformation project up for success, including engaging stakeholders, aligning around goals, and vetting prospective vendors.

• How to create user-friendly navigation menus, buyer journeys, and interactive tools that meet visitors where they’re at and seamlessly get them where they need to go.

• How to leverage copy, imagery, and design motifs to stand out from the crowd and bring your brand, values, and mission to life.
  
  

Youth marketing doesn’t have to live on a poster, a coloring sheet or a dusty corner of your website. In this session, Community Choice Credit Union Marketing Manager, Bryce Verlinden, teams up with John Lanza, Chief Mammal of The Money Mammals, to share how Community Choice transformed its youth programming into a full-scale community engagement strategy—one that drives awareness, deposits and genuine brand affinity with families.

Through three real-world initiatives—from a rolling mascot mobile and a city-wide social scavenger hunt to a high-impact state fair activation—attendees will see how experiential, family-first marketing can deliver outsized results without massive budgets. You’ll walk away with concrete ideas for bringing your youth program off the page, into the community and into the hearts (and wallets) of the next generation of members.

Top 3 Takeaways for Attendees:

• How to turn a youth brand into a community magnet

  • Learn how Community Choice uses mascots, experiences and local partnerships to create moments families want to engage with.

• Ways to generate engagement that supports real business goals

  • See how playful campaigns—when they’re designed with intention—can still drive serious outcomes like deposit growth, social engagement and new account openings.

• A repeatable framework for experiential marketing on a micro budget

  • Walk away with practical ideas you can adapt for branch events, community festivals and social campaigns—even if your team is small and your budget is smaller.
    

Let’s be honest, we all spend time trying to prove attribution to ourselves and executives. We look at our budgets and ask, “Where can we steal budget from to give digital a boost?”Honestly, do it... But what if the biggest opportunity in your marketing department isn’t reallocating spend at all? What if it’s making the most out of the dollars you’ve already spent?

In this session, we’ll explore what happens when marketing stops measuring success at application start and begins taking the initiative throughout the process. I’ll share how a shift in mindset, an opportune moment, and a practical recovery framework changed how we view budget, attribution, and growth.

Top Three Takeaways:

• Uncover the true cost of unfinished applications.

• A practical approach to recovering lost warm leads without adding friction to the member experience.

• How to reposition marketing from a cost center to a measurable revenue creator.

What does it really take to build a brand that doesn’t just exist—but inspires action, loyalty, and growth?
In this candid session, a credit union CEO and a brand strategist share the real story behind building a brand that stands out in a crowded financial marketplace. Together, they’ll explore the critical moments where brands either stall or surge—the “breakpoints” between strategy and real-world results.

Through the lens of a Credit Union’s brand journey, you’ll gain an inside look at how leadership alignment, bold positioning, and employee activation turn brand strategy into measurable momentum.

You’ll leave with practical insights on how to turn roadblocks into breakthroughs, build internal brand champions, and create meaningful relevance with growth audiences. Whether you’re leading brand strategy, marketing growth, or member experience, this session will equip you with actionable ideas to strengthen your brand, balance awareness with performance, and bring your brand promise to life across every touchpoint.