CHOOSE BIGGER –
WISCONSIN MARKETING CAMPAIGN FINDS ITS TARGET By Cairine Caughill When the Wisconsin area wanted to increase the number of qualified applicants for apprenticeships, they decided to try something different. Ken Groeschel Jr., project manager at ButtersFetting Company, Inc. and co-chair of the Milwaukee Apprentice Committee, along with Lauri Rollings, former executive director at the Plumbing Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors’ Alliance (PMSMCA), reached out to Nehlsen Communications, an agency that works primarily in the union/construction trade industry, for help creating a marketing campaign that would resonate with their target market. “We hadn’t promoted the industry and its potential before,” Groeschel explains. “We wanted to improve our candidate pool in the apprenticeship ranks, go out and market our industry and the jobs to the schools and the guidance counselors we’d largely ignored for a long time.” Matt Sanchez of Nehlsen Communications says, “We called the campaign Choose Bigger because we wanted to create a versatile message. Choose bigger. Choose a future with no college debt. Choose a career in technology. Choose a bigger career within the community. We presented a comprehensive campaign that would 10 » Partners in Progress » www.pinp.org
advertise this industry in the same words that make it attractive to a young person.” That message is no college debt, technology use, community, and a sense of pride. I built that. Look what I’ve done. “These are all things that young people love, and we just led with it,” Sanchez says. “We delivered it through digital advertising strategies, so we were able to deliver to exact age groupings, exact jurisdictional boundaries, and women, which is a huge goal in this industry.” The multi-faceted marketing program rolled out in 2017, and included a website, banners, brochures, videos, Google advertising, an email follow-up campaign, career fair displays, and social media with information for students, parents, and counselors. According to Michael Mooney, president and business manager of Local 18, most of the high schools and the guidance counselors were steering all the kids towards four-year colleges. “We knew that today’s youth don’t really want to have a mailing or a handout, so we’ve put everything online. They can get it on their phones. That’s what they’re interested in,” Mooney says. However, reaching students is not enough. When the program
