BWG Manufacturing 2.0 Campaign

In the Fall of 2022, the Office of Economic Development (EDO) for the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury (BWG) engaged Amplify to develop a marketing campaign to support the growth of their Economic Manufacturing Sector. They identified that the biggest barrier their manufacturing business partners face is the sheer difficulty of attracting high potential employees due to the prevailing stigma that manufacturing work is unsafe, gruelling, and dirty, and offers little in career advancement and rewards.

In view of these challenges, Amplify defined five key strategies:

• demonstrate that ‘manufacturing today’ actually offers an exciting and diverse range of rewarding long-term career opportunities within modern, safe, and clean environments;
• firmly position BWG’s manufacturing partners as vital, successful, leading-edge companies that foster sustainable employee personal growth, and offer competitive benefit packages;
• reinforce the fact that BWG is a vibrant and growing family-oriented community;
• attract potential employees through targeted websites and social media channels;
• provide marketing materials to BWG’s business partners for their own marketing efforts.

Amplify’s marketing solution was to create a series of videos that could dynamically portray the collaborative synergy of the BWG EDO partnered with its manufacturing business partners, as well as clearly show the cleanliness and safety of today’s manufacturing workplaces. A pilot project was recommended that BWG could then use to encourage more manufacturing businesses to participate. KUMI Canada Corporation, a highly successful, technologically advanced, Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry readily agreed to become the featured pilot video partner. Kumi was eager to showcase their leading designs, quality product, and technologically-focused automation capabilities.

Amplify’s key strategic insight for the campaign was that an engaging ‘rallying cry’ was needed to attract attention and shift negative perceptions. The theme ‘Manufacturing 2.0’ was created. It instantly signals that manufacturing today has changed. Not only do exciting and rewarding opportunities exist for potential employees, but the sector offers a wide variety of skill-based careers, all within contemporary, clean and safely regulated environments. The positive ‘halo’ of this approach does double-duty, as it positions BWG as a caring and forward-building community, and clearly positions the partner business as a leading example of high caliber work practices. A strong call-to-action was created to pay off the theme and motivate potential employees: ‘Put Your Future First!’