All Diamond Award winners in this category are listed below.
Category’s Best winners—marked with a 💎—earned the highest score within their asset grouping.
Assets greater than $1 billion | Portsmouth, NH
What began as a grassroots effort among Service CU employees has grown into an annual tradition of generosity, collaboration, and compassion. The Stay Warm program continues to demonstrate the power of partnership and the impact that can be made when communities come together.
With this social media effort, we were able to use visuals to demonstrate how much of a need there is across our home state for a high-quality jacket in the cold winter. By focusing on jackets, we were able to provide even greater warmth and comfort to the people who need it most and reach more families through our trusted network of local organizations.
Assets $250 million – $1 billion | Marshfield, WI
The New Branch Coloring Contest showed how social media can turn a branch opening into a shared community moment. Instead of simply announcing a new location, Simplicity Credit Union invited families to participate creatively, generating authentic engagement and user-generated content that carried the campaign far beyond paid or scheduled posts.
The biggest takeaway was that highly visual, interactive content—especially when it involves kids and families—drives conversation and sharing organically. Social media became a two-way storytelling platform, highlighting community creativity while reinforcing Simplicity’s approachable, people-first brand.
The campaign exceeded expectations by delivering strong engagement, widespread sharing, and meaningful participation, all while building positive brand sentiment before the branch opened. It demonstrated that when social media campaigns are designed to invite involvement rather than push messages, they create deeper connections and lasting awareness.
Assets greater than $1 billion | Tuscaloosa, AL
Throughout 2025, ACU’s approach to social media changed the way we will continue to post and grow going forward. A focus on organic content, relatable posts, and team member involvement absolutely exceeded our expectations overall – we surpassed our goals for impressions, interactions, and general account growth on multiple platforms. Impressions increased by 36% from 2024, and interactions increased 42%.
We learned that team member involvement not only increased content engagement within the CU, but with members who recognized their branches. We saw that Reels is definitely a great medium for ACU, across platforms – several of our top-performing posts were Reels. We also saw that even with the rise of Reels, image trend posts could pay off for ACU, as well, especially on Instagram, where the target audience of our account and the trends in general skew younger.
Assets greater than $1 billion | Vernon Hills, IL
"POV: Gen Z writes your script" flipped the traditional approach to financial education by blending cultural fluency with humor. We featured a seasoned BCU team member explaining what’s so great about BCU — while using trending Gen Z slang like “giving” — to make financial concepts approachable and entertaining.
This campaign taught us that leaning into generational trends can spark engagement without sacrificing clarity. By pairing authenticity (an actual employee sharing actual facts about the Credit Union) with playful language, we bridged the gap between younger audiences and financial literacy.
The Reel exceeded engagement benchmarks, driving strong conversation and shares, and reinforced that social-first storytelling can make even complex topics feel relatable. Our key takeaway: when you meet members where they are — both on their feeds and in their language — you create content that resonates and builds trust across generations.
Assets $250 million – $1 billion | Baton Rouge, LA
“Your Home Can Buy That” used animated social ads and simple, lifestyle-driven copy to turn HELOCs into something younger homeowners could see in their own feed. We framed common pain points like high-interest debt or delayed projects and answered them with the idea that your home can buy the things that matter now, from a grad program to a kitchen update to a dream trip.
Running across major social platforms in our three core markets, the campaign delivered 203,098 impressions, 2,969 link clicks to our landing page, and solid social proof with 120 reactions. Overall, the click-through rate was 1.46%, compared with a 0.85% industry benchmark, with Baton Rouge leading at 1.79%. The result was efficient, above-benchmark traffic, and we grew our HELOC pipeline.
Assets greater than $1 billion | Sacramento, CA
On July 14, 2025, Golden 1 launched Member Appreciation Week. This was a campaign designed to uplift, engage, and strengthen connections with our brand, mission, and core values, while expressing an enormous ‘Thank You’ to our loyal members. Through a strategic mix of storytelling and interpersonal content, we drove awareness with a series of short-form videos and received over 24,000 sweepstakes entries. These videos celebrated our members and highlighted the value of participating in the sweepstakes.
While focusing on Instagram and Facebook Stories, we created real-time anticipation for the sweepstakes launch by posting engaging messages from our leadership. Showcasing winning members alongside leadership emphasized the power of personal stories and deepened engagement. Our congratulatory post announcing the grand-prize winner not only surpassed engagement targets, but four of our top 10-performing posts this year were a product of our Member Appreciation Week campaign.
Assets $250 million – $1 billion | Shelbyville, TN
You never know what challenge awaits you when you arrive at work every day. You might just have to produce your most impactful video of the year to save untold amounts of fraud losses, all before lunch.
Assets greater than $1 billion | Tucson, AZ
Hughes’ social media strategy proved that consistency and relevance can drive meaningful growth. In 2025, social performance increased across all key metrics compared to 2024, including a 22% increase in impressions, a 12% increase in reach, and nearly 15% growth in total engagements. Community-driven content and timely cultural moments generated the strongest interaction, particularly campaigns that invited participation or reinforced local pride. By grounding social media in real relationships, rather than polished promotion, Hughes strengthened engagement while clearly differentiating itself from big banks. The key takeaway was that when content reflects the values and experiences of the community it serves, growth follows naturally.
Assets greater than $1 billion | Wichita, KS
To launch Meritrust into the Denver DMA, we built trust fast by showing up where community pride already lives: CU and CSU athletics. By partnering with NIL athletes and delivering premium video across broadcast TV and CTV, Meritrust introduced its brand through recognizable faces and authentic storytelling that aligned with fans’ passion and community values.
The campaign demonstrated that awareness grows faster when a new-to-market brand earns credibility by supporting local priorities. Our key takeaway: pairing NIL with a high-reach video strategy isn’t just a sponsorship—it’s a trust accelerator when the message reinforces long-term commitment rather than a short-term splash. With a full-market takeover approach focused on reach and frequency, Meritrust quickly established visibility and reputation while laying the groundwork for ongoing community engagement.
Assets greater than $1 billion | Sandy, UT
The Trending Social Media Content campaign redefined how Mountain America engages its online audiences. By combining cultural relevance with financial education, we transformed trending moments into opportunities for authentic connection. Each post reflected our brand’s warmth, professionalism, and mission to promote financial well-being. Monthly trend reviews enabled rapid yet responsible adaptation of viral formats into content that informed, entertained, and inspired.
The campaign exceeded expectations—driving engagement, boosting organic reach, and strengthening brand trust across all platforms. We learned that calculated creativity pays off: with the right strategy, trending content can educate, engage, and elevate a financial brand’s visibility while deepening its relationship with members and future members alike.
Assets $250 million – $1 billion | Romulus, MI
This initiative showed that authenticity and empathy can outperform even the most carefully planned marketing efforts. By responding in real time to a student’s TikTok with genuine leadership involvement and meaningful action, we demonstrated that trust is built through what you do, not what you say. Meeting the moment where the story was already unfolding created a connection that felt human, not branded, and delivered impact comparable to a full-scale campaign.
We learned that quick, values-driven action resonates more deeply than polished promotion, especially with younger audiences. Leadership visibility humanized our brand and reinforced credibility. Using TikTok allowed us to participate in an authentic moment rather than create one. The initiative generated high engagement across TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube, contributed to 194 new member applications in August, and resulted in two earned media features, making it one of our strongest performing initiatives of the year.
Assets $250 million – $1 billion | Cincinnati, OH
This campaign proved that a financial institution doesn’t have to abandon its credibility to show up in a fun, relevant way on social media. By tapping into the excitement around a sold-out Savannah Bananas game and turning it into a week-long guessing game, we met people where their interests already were, instead of asking them to care about another financial post.
The biggest takeaway was that anticipation and storytelling drive far more engagement than a single giveaway announcement. Using social media as a series rather than a one-off post allowed momentum to build and kept audiences coming back daily. The campaign exceeded our goals by increasing followers, engagement, and brand visibility while also shifting perception. It showed that when content feels local and timely, social media can be a powerful tool for connecting with new audiences.
Assets greater than $1 billion | Laurel, MD
This campaign taught us that courage and authenticity matter more than budget size. We entered Instagram nine months ago with modest expectations—hoping to attract a few hundred followers. By embracing creative risks like those of Taylor Swift and other trends and staying true to our community roots with local sports content, we've reached over 500,000 people and gained 1,474 highly engaged followers.
The key takeaway? Contests attract attention, but genuine content builds lasting relationships. We retained 96% of followers post-contest because we delivered value immediately. Perhaps most rewarding was the internal cultural shift—our employees became excited brand ambassadors, sharing content organically. Instagram proved that smaller institutions can compete effectively against national banks by being bold, timely, and human. In a saturated market dominated by competitors with vastly larger budgets, strategic social media allowed us to punch well above our weight class and connect meaningfully with younger demographics.
