Fort Worth Community Credit Union has helped local women "get their worth on" thanks to Gabby.
"Gabby is the just the girlfriend we women would all want in our lives," said Rochelle Drake, vice president of marketing at FTWCCU. "She speaks to the strong, financially savvy woman searching for helpful financial tips, money-saving ideas and community projects to support."
As a virtual spokesperson, she was created to help the credit union connect with women in the Fort Worth area. Gabby has her own website (GetYourWorthOn.com), can be found on Twitter and Facebook and even has her own branded water. The website features financial advice, tools and news as well as interactive elements, including a poll, featured coupons and Gabby's blog and Twitter feed.
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"With 80% of all household decisions and financial decisions being made by women, we thought it was time to start going after the soccer mom," said Drake.
Gabby also provided the perfect opportunity for the credit union to step into social media with a highly targeted approach.
"We didn't want a Facebook or Twitter presence that was all things to all people, so Gabby was born to befriend and be a girlfriend of women age 28 to 35," said Drake.
FTWCCU turned to Oklahoma City-based agency Third Degree Advertising to help breathe life into Gabby. That meant not only figuring out what she would look like but also what her personality was like, how she would talk and what kind of things she would be interested in.
"Basically, she's knowledgeable enough to be a worthy credit union spokes gal, and we wanted to tap that spark of self-worth, self-sufficiency and money smarts that women can relate to," said Kande Hein, account manager at Third Degree.
A personality profile revealed that Gabby is a busy working mom in her 30s, constantly looking for anything that makes her life and her family's life easier but never too busy to care about style and outings with her friends. Her needs are like her audience's: budgeting, coupons and family activities. According to Hein, her voice was not about talking down to her peers but being a part of their conversation.
Drawing inspiration from the greens, blues and golds of the FTWCCU brand, Gabby's style is vintage chic because Hein wanted her to be a cool modern mom with enough retro charm to appeal to all women regardless of age.
To ensure Gabby's generational appeal, her voice consists of a communications team of 11 female credit union staffers who tweet and blog in her name. Gabby also has her own "Gabby Talk" newsletter that the marketing department emails weekly to her communication team to keep them updated on her daily life.
"It's been a lot of fun. Women just love Gabby's sassiness, and we've even had a few men ask about her," said Drake. "We just launched a new promotion 'Mama Knows Best' for Mother's Day where we ask our Facebook friends to write why their moms deserves to win a stay at a bed and breakfast, and we got 950 entries in one day."
According to Hein, despite being recently introduced last month, Gabby has been slowly building a loyal following while helping to reinforce the image of FTWCCU as a trusted resource.
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