Gabriela (Gaby) Ortiz Career Background
What is your biggest career achievement?
- As I look back at my career, my work has been characterized by creating brand cohesion across every touchpoint of the resident journey. This can only be achieved by truly understanding your demographic, getting to know the ins and outs of your product, in this case, each community individually, and working closely with the boots-on-the-ground team to ensure campaign sustainability. From deploying influencer marketing tactics for "lease-ups" to developing marketing training models that sustain onsite efforts to implementing a resident perks program with 300+ locally-owned businesses across the country, I've had the opportunity to create and execute advanced marketing tactics that directly support each aspect of the resident lifecycle while ensuring brand the strong brand positioning of each asset in its market.
My most significant achievement to date has been playing a vital role in the rebranding strategy and deployment of one of the nation's largest rental management companies. This project entailed conducting focus groups, interviews, market studies, and many brainstorming sessions to develop logos, taglines and core values that would not only capture the identity of the different communities within the portfolio, but would also resonate with the internal company culture. As a result, we rolled out a set of 4 collections that housed communities based on their class-level. This created a strong brand identity for our residents and our employees felt a more powerful sense of belonging in the company. Looking back, it was a challenging task to take on, but it has been one of the largest learning opportunities in my career and has shaped my processes moving forward.
Given your past experiences, what event/ project or moment would you revisit and how would you go about it differently based on your current frame of mind?
- When I started my career, I was so eager to grow and prove myself that I would take on projects and try to figure everything out on my own. While being self-dependent has proven beneficial, as I've progressed in my career and have had the opportunity to train junior members, I've realized there is so much to learn from asking questions and understanding the "why." Regardless of how far you have come in your career, there is so much to learn, and asking questions to gain additional context is crucial to solving problems efficiently, especially when it comes to marketing. Additionally, this allows you to work quickly, accurately, and efficiently, which in the long run, supports career growth.
From your perspective, what is the industry lacking to support the modern renter and how do you plan to help supply that need?
- In a world of Amazon Prime, more and more than ever, renters expect speed and ease. Regarding our industry, one of the main challenges I've identified is the need for a quick turnaround when nurturing prospects. This results in missed opportunities, especially when competing against similar products in the market. Marketing teams go to great lengths to generate leads, but often, there is a lag in getting in touch with this renter. I look forward to partnering with vendors such as Knock with their Knock Voice Tool and Nurture Boss to provide renters with instant prompts and interactions in order to minimize the amount of time it takes to get the information the renter is looking for.