But Barrow is quick to point out that this recognition is not just about her. It's also about Suncoast's leaders, her marketing staff and professional partnerships.

"Working under the leadership of our former CEO Tom Dorety, and new CEO Kevin Johnson, is also part of why my tenure has lasted beyond the norm," Barrow explained. "They believe in taking members seriously and in developing products and services that meet the current needs of those we serve. They are also the architects of the way we reach even further into the communities we serve through our foundation, philanthropy and outreach. When you have inspired leadership that is authentic and focused, it makes coming to work feel more like a mission than it does a job."

And if there is any "secret" to thriving over the long haul as a CMO, it's to make sure you surround yourself with a smart team that shares the organization's cultural ideals, Barrow added.

Since joining Suncoast, the marketing team has grown from four to nearly 20, and the team of four from 16 years ago is still working with Barrow today.

Even though her first financial services job was not successful, she discovered her professional purpose.

"My first job in the space was with a savings & loan, which actually was put into receivership and ultimately closed by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. It happened because there were some bad loans and poor management decisions," Barrow said. "In my Dad's Christmas letter that year, 1987, he wrote, 'Patti's bank went bankrupt, but it's not her fault.' No amount of free toasters for opening checking accounts could have saved them. Even though my professional foray had a tragic ending, it taught me that I had found my professional purpose."

She learned that personal finance and business finance can set or change the course of life. And Barrow wanted in.

"Every single person in the community needs banking services to build a better quality of life. Now, many years later, when I learned that Suncoast was looking for a marketing vice president, I wanted that job," she said. "I believed I'd be able to harness my previous work experiences in a way that could contribute to supporting the growth of important products and services while telling the community-building stories that have resulted from the largest credit union in the state of Florida. Helping people make the best decisions possible about their money is a high calling. I know there is value, quality and purpose in what we do. It's something good for others and for the communities we serve too. I'm very proud of that."

After the Freedom Savings and Loan was forced to close shop, Barrow served as vice president, retail marketing manager for Chase Manhattan Bank in Florida for six years and then landed a marketing manager's position with Rivera Finance in Florida and California.

She joined Suncoast Credit Union in August 2001.

"Sixteen years sounds like a long time, but when you work for an organization like Suncoast Credit Union – every day is different," she reflected. "We learn more about our members and their challenges, and we are tasked with problem solving to help them achieve financial peace of mind. We literally have the opportunity to change people's lives for the better."

While Barrow and her staff have created many marketing campaigns over the years, one of the most successful projects came in 2014 when Suncoast changed its charter to an open field of membership. The cooperative was founded in 1934 as the Hillsborough County Teachers Credit Union. Over the years, the credit union expanded into several counties and opened membership to all school employees, not just teachers.

"We were challenged with slowing growth, largely due to consumers still thinking they had to work in the school system in order to join," she recalled. "We changed our name and logo, rebranded, updated our branch merchandising and launched a new website. The strategy was executed by partnering with experts in web development, branding and merchandising, along with enormous effort from key business units internally."

The credit union's net member growth increased from 4.5% in 2013 to 7.5% in 2014, and jumped again to 12% in 2015. Fortuitously, the rebounding economy and the credit union's branch expansion also helped fuel that growth.

"We wanted a steady (membership) growth trajectory, and since we were opening our membership to anybody in the community we also wanted to start giving back more to the community," Barrow said. "So we shifted our strategies away from the paid media route into the investing in community activities, which were separate from the foundation."

The credit union increased its community sponsorships from about 100 a year to more than 300 annually.

"We give our employees the opportunity to volunteer at these community events to talk about the credit union difference, to build awareness and to build leads," she explained. "The volunteer hours through our community sponsorships went from about 5,000 to more than 22,000."

The net membership growth plateaued at 10% in 2016 and 7% in 2017.

Suncoast is refocusing its marketing efforts to get back to double-digit growth numbers through some traditional media and more in the digital media channels where Barrow sees many opportunities.

That will be a challenging goal considering that Suncoast serves a diverse membership of nearly 750,000. A couple of years back, the credit union developed a generational onboarding campaign with messaging and imagery that would appeal to all of the different age groups.

"More importantly, as we are getting better at using data analytics, we are becoming more efficient with targeting messaging based upon behavior, then layering the messaging and imagery relative to the age group," she said.

Barrow is confident that the future of credit union marketing is going to depend on two words: big data.

"Credit unions have so much data about our members, but with the data being stored in many different systems, it's difficult to get the 360-degree picture of the entire relationship in one view," she said. "As an organization, we are putting considerable effort and resources toward pulling all that data together to create personalized offers and tailored marketing messages that ultimately will become automated."

For example, a member that is making monthly payments to an auto finance company like GMAC, who does not have a Suncoast vehicle loan, and meets other criteria that would indicate a good credit risk, will be sent an invitation to apply to refinance their loan to Suncoast.

"As we grow in sophistication, ultimately we'd like to have perpetual loan offers available to members to access as needed, based upon their behavior and key criteria," Barrow noted.