Dear MMTA Member,
We wanted to give you a heads up about the new campaign we are working on at MMTA to help attract the next generation of truckers to Maine companies.
Go YOUR Way is an emotional “upstream" digital campaign that is designed to speak to younger people on their platforms (not ours). So we may not see the campaign. But they will.
The promise of the campaign is that “when you choose an exciting career in trucking, you can live life on your terms”.
It is designed to speak to young people that don’t want to follow the typical path of college debt and cubicles. Think young mavericks and young people who may want to see the world, or at least want to control their own destiny, and work in an industry that will always keep them employed. When you choose a career in trucking in Maine, there is something for everyone.
Our early research showed that the biggest barriers for young people are perceived boredom and a belief that every trucking job won’t allow you to be home. That is especially concerning with those who already have a family.
Our campaign needs to go upstream (younger) and show that a career in trucking is an exciting life that allows you to live life on your terms – whether that’s seeing the world or working on the latest big rigs and technology. We need to get them early so they don’t move on to other careers before they consider trucking. We need to demonstrate this is a career where you are always employed and you are surrounded with people who are exciting (vs. the perception that truck driving is boring).
Hence… Go YOUR Way. This campaign will attract young people who aren’t afraid of a little hard work. Of going a different direction that the traditional path.
This campaign is going to be an authentic, real, and gritty social video campaign that profiles what life on the road and life in this industry is all about. It’s heavy on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. The Media strategy will promote the videos on social media to young people who have not yet built a family and are not yet tied down. The call to action will be to get them to the site so they can learn more, and find a career in trucking that might be right for them.
The promotional videos that will run on social media will be hosted by a fun and consistent character who is tonally correct, but doesn’t know squat about the trucking industry. He leans into that lack of knowledge with some humor and interviews people about what it’s like to work in our industry.
The videos and website will always show excitement, success, and that hard work is gratifying.
New videos will be developed each quarter and posted and promoted to the target. These videos are not “high production value” (think TikTok and Instagram stories). They are gritty, real, and will speak more to 18 - 25 year olds than they might to you and me. And THAT may be our biggest challenge.
To be clear, this is the only the beginning. The future direction of our workforce development efforts will be determined by successes and failures as we go along. Hope you like the campaign. We certainly do.
Sincerely,
The MMTA Team
