Simplicity Credit Union sparkles – taking home three Diamonds

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

June 8, 2026

MARSHFIELD – Forget gold, VP of Marketing Ben Bauer said Simplicity Credit Union has brought home three Diamond Awards following America’s Credit Union’s (ACU) annual conference in April.

“That’s a pretty nice haul,” he said. “They always have a professional photographer at the conference during the awards ceremony, so [when I was] taking the photos, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh – I feel like I’m going to drop one of these.’”

The ACU’s Diamond Awards competition, according to its website (americascreditunions.org), showcases the “creative excellence” and “outstanding results” of credit unions’ engagement efforts – with categories in advertising and media; new and ongoing events; video production; and brand design and identity.

Over the years, Bauer said Simplicity has submitted various projects to the ACU’s Marketing, PR & Development Council, which received a “record 1,481 submissions” for consideration in 2026, per simplicity.coop.

“There is a pretty extensive application process,” he said. “You have to articulate your strategy, a bit about your audience, who you’re doing the work for and what your goals are.”

Though extensive, Bauer said the process affords Simplicity’s team a chance to reflect on its successes throughout the year and select projects that represent the best of its work.

“That’s one of the benefits of this program – it’s a moment for our team every year to just look back and look at all the work we did in the last year,” he said. “That alone creates a cool moment to celebrate everything you’ve done.”

One, two, three

Since Simplicity began participating in the competition, Bauer said they’ve collected 13 Diamond Awards – three of those being from this most recent year.

“It didn’t feel safe to hold all three of them at the same time,” he laughed.

Two of the awards, Bauer said, were for projects within the same campaign promoting Simplicity’s new Stevens Point branch – initially featured by The Business News in its June 9, 2025 issue following the groundbreaking, and again in this year’s Jan. 5 issue as the branch approached its grand opening.

“We did a coloring contest to help engage the community and youth, [and] to create some hype for the new office coming,” he said. “They got a black-and-white [out]line of the branch and were challenged to color it in. Then we judged them, and they received a little reward for participating – we actually used the winning artwork on some billboards in the Stevens Point area.”

Bauer said the coloring campaign earned awards in two separate categories for its multifaceted approach and use of social media.

“We were trying to create attention for our new branch, but at the same time, a really big strategic initiative we have right now is growing relationships with [members who have children],” he said.

Bauer said Simplicity recently launched “a whole new suite of youth” financial services as part of the initiative.

“Financial education is a big part of what we do,” he said. “So, [the coloring campaign] was a cool way to create hype for the branch, create some awareness for some of these cool new products [we have] and then, also, check the financial education box, which is really important to us, too.”

Simplicity’s third award, Bauer said, recognized how the credit union chooses to distribute its annual report.

“Every year, we have to submit an annual report to our membership,” he said. “We do a small print run of them for the annual meeting, and then to have some out in our branches. Then we always have it available digitally on our website, too.”

Though required by law to issue that report, Bauer said Simplicity sees it as both a responsibility and an opportunity for further engagement.

“We could do a report that’s just a balance sheet, a listing of our board members and [make it] super formal, but every year, we use that as a moment to do some storytelling [and] to recognize our team members,” he said.

One of the ways Bauer said Simplicity celebrates its employees is through an internal program called the annual Core Values Awards.

“We have five core values that are part of our mission, vision and strategic plan, so we give out an award for each of those core values to a member that’s displayed things like leadership, dependability, creativity and things like that,” he said. “We recognize those winners in the annual report and give a little backstory about why they won it.”

Bauer said this is a small way Simplicity both engages its staff as well as its membership base.

“We’re lucky to have a really talented marketing team with graphic designers and such who can take all that information and make it beautiful – something that people actually want to read,” he said.

Maximizing their opportunities to tell the stories of Simplicity’s team and demonstrate the quantifiable results of its work, Bauer said, has and will continue to be a worthwhile effort.

“We’re not a tiny credit union, but we’re also not a huge one either,” he said, “so when we get the opportunity to provide a new set of services and a really great experience to our members by building a branch in one of our markets, we have to maximize that moment.”

For more, visit Simplicity’s aforementioned website.