GTE’s Heritage Credit Card campaign was developed as a brand-focused initiative honoring our roots and Tampa Bay’s rich history during GTE Financial’s 90th Anniversary in 2025. While the product features were important, the campaign placed strong emphasis on storytelling and community connection, aligning the launch with the pride and growth of the Tampa Bay market. Our marketing approach aimed to connect with both long-time members and new residents by blending heritage, authenticity, and modern financial solutions.
We adopted a personable, community-first strategy, producing in-house UGC-style videos and member testimonial commercials to build relatability and trust. The creative highlighted authentic voices and real experiences, positioning the campaign as more than a traditional product promotion and more as a reflection of local identity and shared history. This allowed us to showcase the card’s value in a natural, lifestyle-focused way while strengthening brand affinity.
As part of a new product launch, success was measured through performance-driven KPIs centered on reach and efficiency. Key metrics included impressions, CTR, landing page views, cost per view, engagement rate, and link clicks to ensure the campaign delivered strong visibility and measurable results.
The Heritage Card launched as a key initiative tied to our 90-year anniversary, and our marketing strategy was built to reflect the weight of that milestone. We developed a story-driven campaign designed to feel authentic, culturally relevant, and aligned with the growth of the Tampa Bay market. Our objective was to position the Heritage Card as both a tribute to our legacy and a modern rewards solution built for today’s member.
Execution focused heavily on real stories and real usage. We produced in-house testimonial-style commercials and UGC-inspired short-form content that directly connected members’ lifestyles to the card’s benefits. Representation was intentional. We created bilingual content to authentically engage the Hispanic audience, which represents a significant portion of our membership, while also developing creative tailored to young professionals entering the workforce and looking for premium rewards that fit their evolving financial lives.
The campaign messaging evolved beyond features and into personal relevance. This card isn’t just about our roots, it’s about our members’ roots as well. One of our flagship in-house commercials featured Harold, a hairstylist who frequently travels back to Puerto Rico and uses his Heritage Card to maximize 3X travel rewards. His story demonstrated tangible value while reinforcing credibility and relatability.
We amplified the campaign through high-impact short-form reels that ran organically and as paid placements on Meta in both English and Spanish. Strategically timed around peak travel season, this reel followed a member traveling with her Heritage Card, incorporating real footage from her trips and positioning the card as a passport to multiple destinations. While also highlighting dining and shopping rewards, the creative focused on the modern traveler who is constantly on the move, reinforcing how seamlessly the card integrates into an ambitious, lifestyle-driven audience.
Additional efforts that supported this strategy included directing all campaign leads to a dedicated product landing page. This webpage served as a central hub for the campaign where all leads were driven to this page to learn more about industry leading features.
As a local credit union promoting a feature-focused product, it can be challenging to lead solely with benefits while competing against large national banks. That’s why we leaned into our credit union identity and Tampa roots, shaping our marketing around practicality and relatability as core strengths of the card rather than just listing features.
Together, this fully integrated strategy allowed us to celebrate a 90-year legacy while confidently positioning the Heritage Card for the next generation of members. By combining authentic storytelling, culturally intentional representation, strategic timing, and performance-driven distribution, we transformed a feature-focused product into a lifestyle-driven solution that strengthened brand affinity, expanded reach across the Tampa Bay market, and reinforced our relevance in an increasingly competitive credit card landscape.
Our social media strategy focused on reaching multiple target audiences, including running both English and Spanish reels along with supporting static ads. These campaigns have been live on Meta for the past two months within their respective markets. This has been a primary channel for increasing awareness, driving traffic, and directing users to the product-specific webpage.
To date, the ads have generated:
340,155 impressions
95,508 in reach
28,674 link clicks
The reels achieved an average hook rate of 60%, reflecting strong initial engagement and audience interest.
Since launching these ads on Meta, we’ve seen a significant lift in traffic to our Heritage Card webpage, generating 32,000 active users, with the majority driven directly by our social campaigns. Based on this performance, we believe the content strategy has proven successful and has created a strong foundation to continue this heritage-focused approach, allowing us to highlight additional features and expand into new target markets.
