Talent: We know it’s a numbers game that ultimately requires attraction. Modest investments have been made in the past, including by the state, to advertise Wisconsin life to outsiders. But while a digital ad is great for boosting brand awareness or selling a product, the evidence isn’t there to suggest it will make someone pack up and move. As a result, resources have been concentrated around workforce retention, automation and removing barriers to employment — but the issue of population still looms.
Immigration is a solution beyond state or regional control, so organizations including the NEW Manufacturing Alliance and New North, Inc. are rising to the challenge of wooing workers from outside the region with creative marketing campaigns like NEWMA All Stars, which highlights opportunities to thrive in the region’s celebrated manufacturing economy. And the latest New North initiative, Vice President of Marketing and Investor Relations Renee Torzala says, is focused on recruiting white-collar professionals to Northeast Wisconsin.
“More YOU in NEW” is a marketing and recruitment toolkit — the brainchild of the New North marketing and branding committee chaired by The Boldt Co.’s Bob DeKoch and Business Brains Group’s Donna Rippin — that aims to empower local companies and residents as brand ambassadors for the region. It includes a series of five videos and a marketing booklet that interested companies can co-brand, as well as an interactive digital platform.
“It’s like creating a movement,” Torzala says. “By all of us sharing it with our networks, we’re getting the message out there authentically and organically rather than through a paid, geo-targeted advertising campaign.”
Paid advertising isn’t necessarily off the table, Torzala says, but there isn’t clear research on whom to target and how. She says she hopes to gain insights through the process. In analyzing past research from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., top pools of prospects were identified as military veterans, former residents, and graduates of Wisconsin colleges and universities. It also identified appealing to the millennial demographic as a strong need.
Torzala says all the subjects in the video series are professionals who moved to (or back to) the area and have become passionate about life and work in the region — including individuals in all of the above categories. But there’s also Sean Elliott, president and CEO of the Greater Green Bay YMCA, who moved to the area from Philadelphia with almost no prior knowledge of Wisconsin. In his video, Elliott calculates the amount of time he has gotten back in his commute since relocating: 32 full calendar days per year.
Interviewees describe their negative perceptions that were proven wrong: The weather is unbearable; the region lacks support networks for people of color; there is a lack of innovation and opportunity in the New North.
“People don’t realize we have a state-of-the-art performing arts center, quality restaurants, a thriving arts community and all the innovation that’s happening at places like TitletownTech,” says Torzala, adding that some of the other main selling points included in the campaign are cost of living, opportunities to network, and the community’s overall giving spirit.
“That came up a lot,” she says. “People really care about each other here.”
Torzala says the lack of awareness and the misperceptions about Northeast Wisconsin are likely attributable to residents’ traditionally humble nature. Her efforts include encouraging residents to speak out and share the stories “More YOU in NEW” has to tell.
The marketing materials are available online now for recruiters, marketers and the general public to share, and Torzala is especially excited about the campaign’s newest component: a digital mosaic — a kind of “community art project” that asks people to upload photos with comments on what they love about living in the New North. The responses will make up a colorful, searchable resource that will be unveiled at the New North Summit June 9, and the mosaic will also be transformed into a one-of-a-kind painting by Green Bay-based artist Gregory Frederic.
“Once the design is unveiled, companies can use it on their websites, people can share it, and we hope it goes viral,” Torzala says. Like everything in the campaign, she says she wants the artwork to carry a broad, accessible, spirited and grassroots appeal.
“It’s been really inspiring working on this campaign,” she says, “because it makes you feel proud to live and work here when you hear other people talk about how excited they are to be here.”
