L. BECU Presents Sue Bird’s Surprise: The statistics are staggering. The number of girls who feel confident about themselves drops from 72 percent in 6th grade to 55 percent in 10th grade. Luckily, sports can help change that statistic – girls who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem, get better grades in school and are more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports.
BECU, through a partnership with the Seattle Storm, set out to achieve two goals:
1. Help girls build fundamental skills that are transferable to sports, life, and financial literacy like communication, hard work, practice, and dedication.
2. Increase social media engagement on the BECU Facebook page.
From these goals, BECU created “Sue Bird’s Surprise”—A web video series following a youth basketball team’s journey to winning their first tournament with help and inspiration from WNBA superstar Sue Bird. The series was presented by BECU Early Saver, the credit union’s youth banking program that teaches kids the fundamentals of saving money, spending responsibly, and how interest rates help them earn even more.
Over the course of the series, the team meets and practices with WNBA Seattle Storm Guard and four-time Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird. Sue works with the girls on their fundamental basketball skills and helps them learn the importance of communication, boosting their confidence to empower them on and off the court.
The campaign resulted in a 200% increase in weekly page likes for BECU’s Facebook page over a two-week period, 195,000+ video views, and a 651% increase in post engagement.
