Highlighting financial strength and philanthropy

The Challenge

Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed), the second largest federal credit union in the United States, enlisted Pinkston to highlight its strength as a financial institution and its strong support for the military.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) is the second largest federal credit union in the United States, with 1.8 million members worldwide and $25 billion in assets.

Objective

PenFed enlisted Pinkston to support public relations efforts aimed at highlighting its strength as a leading financial institution and its strong support for the military community that makes up its core membership base.

Pinkston’s Approach

Pinkston’s two-pronged approach to meeting PenFed’s goals included earned and owned media outreach around PenFed products and the PenFed Foundation, as well as thought leadership for PenFed spokespeople around news related to finance and financial planning, banking, credit cards, etc. 

One of Pinkston’s early projects for PenFed involved the development of a campaign to promote the credit union’s new travel rewards credit card. It can be difficult to launch any product via earned media, but Pinkston’s innovative approach resulted in dozens of articles in outlets ranging from popular credit card websites such as Credit Karma and The Points Guy to more broadly-focused travel and personal finance outlets such as Kiplinger and Conde Nast Traveler. Pinkston coordinated a Satellite Media Tour that reported more than 1,700 airings across local and regional television stations across the country. 

Pinkston has also helped raise PenFed’s philanthropic profile, earning local and national coverage for its support of veteran-owned businesses, its initiative to train service dogs for wounded veterans, and its funding of a home where veterans (and their families) can recover from injuries.

Results

In one of Pinkston’s earliest projects for PenFed, we developed a campaign to promote the credit union’s new travel rewards credit card. It is difficult to launch any product via earned media, but Pinkston’s innovative approach resulted in dozens of articles in outlets ranging from popular credit card websites such as Credit Karma and The Points Guy to more broadly focused travel and personal finance outlets, including Kiplinger and Conde Nast Traveler. Pinkston also helped coordinate a Satellite Media Tour that reported more than 1,700 airings across local and regional television stations across the country. 

Pinkston has also helped raise PenFed’s profile around its philanthropic work, earning local and national coverage for its support of veteran-owned businesses, its initiative to train service dogs for wounded veterans, and its funding of a home where veterans (and their families) can recover from injuries.