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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Lakers Partner Tries High Finance Play

 First Entertainment Credit Union is gearing up to launch “Money Matters,” an online financial literacy program designed for high school and college students. But this isn’t a typical self-improvement course.Viewers of the debut episode, titled “Money Mindset & Budgeting,” and airing soon, will hear from Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis in a roundtable discussion with financial planner and chief executive of Financially Wise Women in Los Angeles Brittany Castro and First Entertainment Chief Marketing Officer Amondo Redmond. The trio will discuss such topics as student loans, credit debt and savings accounts.Future episodes will feature other Lakers players including Quinn Cook and Danny Green discussing their rise from student-athletes to pro hoopers and the financial skills they had to learn in order to navigate and maintain that success.

Redmond told the Business Journal the program “is really geared toward making sure we’re serving communities with information that is going to help their lives. We want to give them the tools to be successful.”The course is a manifestation of First Entertainment’s sponsorship deal to become the official credit union of the Lakers, announced in March.Redmond explained that as an entertainment-focused credit union with deep roots in Los Angeles, it made more sense to spend big on a Lakers sponsorship than keep investing in traditional advertising channels.

“We wanted to do something more varied in terms of people that we can go after,” he said. “There’s no more important organization in L.A. than the Lakers.”First Entertainment was founded in 1967 by employees of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. It is headquartered on Forest Lawn Drive, across the L.A. River from the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.Kristen Walker, marketing professor at California State University – Northridge, said it’s a “great idea” for financial companies to align themselves with brands – like pro sports teams – with which people have deep emotional connections.“It’s a good investment, no matter the expense,” she said.

As for First Entertainment’s Lakers deal, she added: “Associating an entertainment-based brand with an L.A. sports team – that to me is a very smart strategic relation.” Other partnership projects include last month’s rollout of Lakers-branded credit cards and two TV commercials – one with Davis alone and another with Davis, Green, Cook, JaVale McGee and Alex Caruso.

Once the TV commercials began to air and the Lakers players began posting about First Entertainment on social media, digital engagement skyrocketed, Redmond said.“When we started this campaign, we had 300 followers on Instagram. Now, we’re the third-most-followed credit union in California,” he added. “We’re starting to see the positives of the campaign: new members, new people, new digital and social engagement.”

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