Situation
The year was 2013. Manufacturers around the globe faced a massive shortage of skilled trade technicians. So was the company that I worked with. With more than 3 million pieces of equipment around the world and not enough technicians to service them, a recruitment program was implemented to address the skilled labor shortage and find qualified candidates to fill the talent pipeline.
GOALS
- Identify work-ready leads
- Expand the hiring pool for future techs by inspiring students to consider careers in skilled trades
- Change the generally negative perception of the trades
Actions
As a communication and digital strategist for this program, I developed an integrated marketing campaign that leveraged the digital space as a tool to generate awareness, educate, and recruit qualified technicians and their influencers. My objective was to bolster recruiting leads in real-time while simultaneously laying the groundwork for enhanced digital-recruiting capabilities in the future.
Digital Strategy
Leveraging the star power of Mike Rowe, the campaign targeted content for each audience type across the following channels.
Media
- Paid media – Banner ads, Paid search video
- Social
- Traditional – Television – CNN show, Radio
- Tradeshow – Skills USA
Website
- Book Website
- Technician recruiting lead generation page
- Landing pages on Mike Rowe’s website
Lead generation
- Lead capture forms
- Dealer follow-up
Assets
LANDING PAGE
SOCIAL VIDEO
LANDING PAGE
TECHNICIAN VIDEOS 2
TECHNICIAN VIDEOS 3
PRINT AD 1
PRINT AD 2
PRINT AD 3
BOOK FRONT
BOOK BACK
Results
Success
The campaign was a success. It brought in qualified, work-ready leads, ready to join the Cat workforce.
Here were the following results from mid-2013 to the end of the year:
- Average daily leads increased by 290%
- Web traffic for pages related to Technician recruitment increased by 209%
- 64% of leads were identified as “work-ready”
- 91% of work-ready leads were looking for a job within the next six months
- 41% of work-ready leads had five or more years of experience
- 95% of non-work-ready leads were students interested in pursuing a career in the skilled trades
- The campaign press coverage sparked a national conversation around the importance of skilled trades.
More details here: https://www.simantel.com/cat-wants-you/
Awards
Additionally, this campaign won several awards including the Ad Age B2B small campaign of the year award.
More details here: https://adage.com/article/special-report-small-agency-conference-and-awards/small-agency-b-b-campaign-year-gold-simantel/294248