Canonical URL: https://www.pulsatehq.com/customers/associated-cu Description: Associated Credit Union helped shape Journeys as a design partner, and sent members a simple message about saving on their car loan. Type: Article Author: Pulsate Associated Credit Union # How ACU funded $1.7M in auto loans in six weeks Tom’s team wanted members with an auto loan elsewhere to see how much they could save. Watch Tom’s story **Tom Maiellaro** VP of Marketing, Associated Credit Union [Book a call](https://www.pulsatehq.com/contact/sales/book?goal=loans&platform=Candescent) Platform Candescent Campaign Journey ## The challenge > “There are over 1,000 lenders in the city of Atlanta alone,” Tom says. “How am I going to get someone to consider us versus these 999 other lenders that have much bigger budgets than me?” ## What the team did In September, ACU’s marketing team put a message in its mobile banking app for members with a car loan at another lender. > They were a vendor, and now we’re partners. They genuinely care about my business. They are good people, and the solution works. Tom Maiellaro VP of Marketing, Associated Credit Union He’s spent around 30 years in financial marketing, nearly 15 of them at ACU, and he thinks the goal of being a member’s primary financial institution no longer exists. “We need to be there when the member needs us,” he says. A car loan isn’t like picking out a shirt, Tom adds, and people take their time over one. So he thinks about how ACU’s channels can work together to keep the credit union top of mind when a member needs a loan or a deposit account, and how to stack them for the best return. “It’s almost like Legos in my head,” he says, “of how to put them together.” ## The three-pointed triangle Frank Napoli runs creative, Ken Galloway runs the marketing technology, and Tom runs the strategy. “I always call this the three-pointed triangle,” he says, because the three of them work closely together. He’s learned to really listen to his teammates. “They keep me grounded and say, okay, come back, Tom, let’s think about this,” he says. “And then I’m like, okay, what do you think?” ## Figuring it out together So when Pulsate started building its new Campaign capabilities, ACU signed up as one of its first design partners. “We have a lot of brainpower behind that on what we could do,” Tom says. His team tried the new capabilities before they were finished, working closely with Shalana Goodin, ACU’s customer success manager at Pulsate, and Mihai Sampaleanu, Pulsate’s CTO. Tom even wanted to set up the first campaign himself, so he’d know the process. “We all agreed that we were going to fail fast,” he says of those early days. “The whole point of this was to walk and stumble and pick ourselves up.” They knew about 90% of what they were doing, and the last 10% was a little foggy. “And I think we got through that 10%.” Shalana says she really appreciates the scrappiness of Tom’s team, and how willing they are “to just jump in and try new things.” ## Paperless first, and a five-minute report Tom’s first idea was paperless statements, “a very easy thing to do,” and a saving for members too, because a printed statement costs them $3.95 a month. The invitation went out only through ACU’s Mobile App, with no email alongside it. Tom, Ken, Shalana, and Mihai had talked through how to report the results four times or so when the answer came to Tom on a walk with his wife. “I can get IT to pull the numbers,” he remembers thinking. So he called ACU’s IT department and asked, “Hey, can you pull me eStatement enrollments by month for 2026 to date?” They said yes. > “Within five minutes, I had the report,” he says, “and I was like, holy cow, look at these results.” By his count, enrollments rose from 651 in July to 1,387 in August, a 113% increase. “I think we knocked it out of the park with that,” Tom says, and ACU now plans to run the paperless invitation at the end of every quarter. “I can just set it up, and it’ll roll.” With Studio, Tom’s team chooses who hears about an offer, what the Messages say, and when they arrive. Each Data Sync update brings in newly qualified members, and anyone who has enrolled moves on. Shalana and Mihai still check in on how it’s going, and as Tom puts it, they’ll “keep my feet to the fire.” ## The refinance campaign Associated Credit Union’s Push Notification: Kick Your Current Auto Loan to the Curb! Apply today & see how much you can save. The member’s view The paperless result “spawned other ideas,” Tom says. ACU knew which members had a car loan with another lender, so Tom went to Ken. “What if we just put up a simple refinance message,” he asked, “because we can save our members an average of $540 a year by funding with us versus another financial institution on an auto loan?” The first message invited those members to talk with ACU’s team about refinancing, and later ones linked to the application. ACU hasn't measured how much of the $1.7M came from its messages; Tom describes the link as a correlation. ## Getting more members into the app Since ACU started using Studio, Tom says, Pulsate is “always top of mind now,” and whenever the triangle plans something new, the conversation turns to, “Can I get the data for Pulsate?” He also wants more members to use the ACU Mobile App. ACU’s digital banking runs on Candescent, so he deployed a simple banner in online banking, through Candescent’s Promotion Suite, inviting every member to download the mobile app. ## About Associated Credit Union Associated Credit Union is a $2.5 billion financial institution serving more than 172,000 members at 18 locations in Atlanta, Augusta, Carrollton, and Dawsonville. ## Related stories - Meritrust Credit Union **$6.8M+** auto loans in 90 days Goal Grow loans [Read their story](https://www.pulsatehq.com/customers/meritrust) - Leaders Credit Union **+28%** eStatement enrollments in 30 days, year over year Goal Digital adoption [Read their story](https://www.pulsatehq.com/customers/leaders-cu) - Pioneer Appalachia FCU **+270%** card applications in August 2025 vs August 2024 Goal Start card use [Read their story](https://www.pulsatehq.com/customers/pioneer-appalachia-card-growth)