Overview
We were tasked with a unique request from Onshore Outsourcing to create a campaign for them to rally Macon residents to support their efforts to create more jobs in the area. Essentially, the company had expanded rapidly already to create 120 jobs in the area, but needed to better their newly purchased property quickly to add space for 100 more jobs locally. Their expansion was being prevented by local legislators, so their intention was to create a base of people interested in supporting their efforts and to instill general goodwill towards their company and the way they have impacted the local community financially.
We planned a micro-site campaign with 3 primary areas of execution within a very quick time frame. For this project we developed a site at Jobsformacon.com to promote their efforts in job creation and create a conversion portal for all ads to direct people towards. Additionally, we created 3 unique videos about different aspects related to Onshore Outsourcing to run locally on TV ads and through a digital campaign on YouTube. At the end of the project, we were able to report on campaign metrics to make recommendations for future efforts within the campaign.
INDUSTRY: Political/ Social Activism
SERVICES: Web Development, Video Production, Digital Advertising
BUSINESS: Rural IT Outsourcing
TARGET MARKET: All Macon, MO Residents
Research
When conducting research locally, we discovered that we could not run any negative campaigns what so ever. Being a very small town, there was not room for a politically charged campaign smearing the opposition and instead we would have to attract individuals with good will and then educate them on the problems the company was facing that prevented expansion.
Our research also showed us that Onshore Outsourcing is the second largest employer in the area and that current IT needs lead to speculation that they will continue to grow quickly in coming years. The jobs they create bring a lot of outside income into the Macon area and this money spent by local residents affects the community in positive ways.
We also found that limiting the campaigns to the specific election coming up decreased the overall potential value of the digital assets for Onshore. We ultimately decided to focus our creative efforts on a campaign that would have longevity, serve multiple purposes, and would improve the way local residents viewed the company.
Goals
Our goals for this project ultimately were to generate a database of local residents that have pledged to help create jobs in Macon, MO. This base could then be later used for town hall meetings or events to rally the local community to get behind Onshore and help them continue growing locally. Our goal was to educate the local community on the positive impact that Onshore Outsourcing has on the area with education, government, and financial support of the community. We created an ad showcasing their involvement with high school level programming courses and showcasing the courses they offer staff members through their custom boot camp and college accredited courses offered on their campus. We also created a video detailing how creating jobs affects the community and how the money generated by a job rolls over in the community. Lastly, we created a 3rd video about Onshore’s philosophy to help rural individuals create a better way of life for themselves and their families. These three ads were run online and on TV locally for a 2 week period.\
Impact
Ultimately this campaign was seen online by over 40% of local residents with a true ad spend budget of $1500. This digital campaign generated a majority of the website traffic and generated 100% of the form completions on the site for people pledging to support creating jobs in Macon. Outside of the primary goal, the site drove over 100 individuals to complete the online job application for Onshore Outsourcing. We ultimately found that the Jobs For Macon campaign was very effective in generating local interest in employment through Onshore and could be used as a great recruitment tool in the future. We suggested creating similar platforms for other locations with re-generated video assets. Running the ads would then attract local job applications and build good will for the company.
The TV campaigns we did not manage were relatively unsuccessful but were primarily ran to attract older local residents. We found that even in a rural community, over 2,000 of our video views were from people aged 55 or older. The website was able to collect a large list of local residents interested in supporting Onshore Outsourcing and their job creation efforts. We found that the economic impact ad and site page were the most effective. We can speculate that people responded the most to content talking about the residual impact of bringing income into a community. We could expect similar results on other cities where Onshore offices are located.
Overall this campaign was successful in generating interest in Onshore Outsourcing, creating job applications, and promoting their financial impact on the local community.