Finding a way forward for Houston’s largest credit union

Texas Dow Employees Credit Union, better known as TDECU, is a brand at a crossroads. For decades, strong local appeal and exceptional service supplanted the need for marketing, elevating TDECU to Houston’s largest credit union with over 250,000 loyal members throughout the state — a trajectory they were poised to continue as the namesake of UH’s new football stadium. But without much investment in the TDECU brand up to that point, the new exposure wasn’t exactly resonant. Questions like “What’s Tuh-deck-you?” were rampant, and a lack of supporting messaging left them unanswered.

Campaign concept one: What’s your forward?

TDECU needed to stand for something beyond its confusing name. Using the brand value of “optimism,” we devised our first campaign around the promise of the future, and the notion that forward isn’t just a direction, it’s a destination.

Leveraging our new “Progress Arrow,” the What’s Your Forward campaign encourages our audience to re-frame their goals as their destination, and to re-think the financial partner they choose to help them get there.

Concept two: Outgrow Your bank

As part of our creative exploration, my team and I wanted to showcase how “Forward” could function as a brand philosophy beyond our initial concept. Working out of the insight that many people choose a bank out of convenience or familiarity rather than benefit or strategy, we developed a more humorous campaign rooted in the same sense of optimism and progress behind “What’s Your Forward?”

Using questionable yet all-too-relatable financial decisions as a conversation starter, this campaign invites our audience to reevaluate the emphasis they place on their long-term finances, and encourages them to reconsider their financial partner as they discover a new way forward.

Concept Three(ish): TDECU STANDS FOR….

One fact our market research showed again and again was that the average Texan had no idea what TDECU stood for, or even that it was associated with a credit union. As part of our creative exploration, me and my team thought we’d tackle this head on. This one never actually made it to the client (shocker), but it remains a favorite in the graveyard of abandoned concepts.

Disclaimer: While the client did buy in to the Forward concept and creative, the campaign remains in limbo due to factors beyond creative control.