HOW TO FOLLOW-UP ON A SUCCESS LIKE #THANKAFRAMER?
Last year’s inaugural #THANKAFRAMER campaign lived up to its name. The video earned many millions of views. Framers felt the love and thanked us back in droves.
Framer training programs were funded by Norbord, the campaign’s backer, in Houston and Tampa, to speed-up post-hurricane reconstruction.
And Norbord found itself at the forefront of a national discussion with young Americans about pursuing careers in framing. The backdrop was, and remains, a massive skilled framer shortage in homebuilding across the USA.
After visiting a high school in Colorado Springs, CO, last April, where execs from Norbord and Jib and I interviewed and chewed much fat with a classroom full of grads (and later, their parents), we confirmed a hunch: Interest in framer training, whether in school or after graduation, is fierce.
The young male and female grads told us they were keen to learn framing carpentry and make the associated good coin for various reasons. Some see college as risky (big debt, no guarantee of work upon graduation).
Others want to work now and master a skill to earn the money for college later, and skip the whole student loan trap. A number said they crave the satisfaction of working outdoors, building houses with their hands. Still others want to master framing as a first step toward starting their own construction businesses later.
Regardless of plans or reasons behind the aspirations, parents were solidly behind these young guns.
Hence the theme of this year’s #THANKAFRAMER video, print and social media campaign — recruitment. Our key audience is split between young American high-schoolers and construction company owners.
We wanted both to know that opportunity is still alive and well in America, and that Norbord is chasing down a labour problem that hurts the economy and cripples construction, yet is entirely solvable. Without the government.
I created the video concept, consulted on the outlaw-country-style soundtrack with consummate musical genius Jason Staczek in WA, and wrote the #THANKAFRAMER website and print advertising.