A St. Albert Teen has Landed a Year-long Gig
Dec 12, 2007 
St. Albert Gazette | By Cory Hare
A St. Albert teen has landed a year-long gig as the spokesperson for an Alberta-wide credit union that’s trying to target the hard-to-reach 17- to 25-year-old segment.
Larissa Walkiw, 19, earned the job in an unorthodox competition that saw her first submit a one-minute video to the company. Then, after she was selected as one of three finalists, she embarked on a publicity campaign aimed at earning votes on the company’s website.
One thing she did to lure people to the site was leaving sticky notes around town bearing her name and the web address.
Described as dynamic, quirky and likeable, Walkiw posted creative video blogs and e-journals that earned nearly 4,000 votes, or about 49 per cent of those cast.
"It feels wonderful. I feel like this is honestly a dream job for me," she said.
Starting in January, Walkiw will begin a one-year contract as the spokesperson for Common Wealth Credit Union’s Young and Free chequing account, a no-fee account for those aged 17 to 25.
Her duties will be to create engaging content for the company’s website and help it better tailor its products to young people. She’ll get the use of a car to travel around the province and draw a $30,000 salary while submitting regular blog posts, YouTube videos and podcasts.
She expects her subject matter to vary widely, touching on anything that’s relevant to young people.
"There’s no map pointing out which direction it should be taking. It really has the chance to become something signature, something very unique,” Walkiw said.
Designed and implemented with the help of a marketing agency and public relations firm, the online contest and Walkiw’s job are all part of a campaign by Lloydminster-based Common Wealth Credit Union to reach the 17-to-25 age group. This segment is particularly difficult for establishment-type firms to reach as this group doesn’t pay much attention to traditional broadcast and print media.
"We’ve believed all along that having baby boomers design things that were valuable for 18 to 25 Generation Y guys was going to miss the mark more times than hit," said president and CEO Jeff Mulligan, 48.
Common Wealth has invested heavily in the promotion, but Mulligan feels the cost is justified because the campaign is generating far more interest than it would through regular advertising.
"Its orders of magnitude are a hundred to 200 times what we could have done through the other channels," he said.
This type of new-media marketing is a new and growing trend, said marketing professor Adam Finn of the University of Alberta.
"If it’s done right, it’s much more cost effective than traditional media purchasing for this sort of age group," Finn said.
And it’s necessary to reach the younger crowd.
"The amount of television that age group is watching has dropped significantly, about half of what it was a generation ago," Finn said.
Currently in her "gap year," Walkiw is a former St. Albert student who finished her schooling in Italy. A visual artist with a deep interest in film, she has been a Henna tattoo artist, a waitress and freelance graphic designer and illustrator. Though she’s taking art training, the former regular on the amateur film festival circuit has her sights set on a career as a film cinematographer and will attend film studies at Toronto’s Ryerson University.
The Young and Free website is at www.youngfreealberta.com.
