The early feedback from the Canadian Trucking Alliance’s ‘Choose to Truck’ landmark image campaign is in – showing that the social media communication drive has been a resounding success through its first quarter in action.
In fact, not only is it undoubtably the largest, most successful public relations effort in the industry’s history, but the creative team behind the online ads also believes it’s one of the more impactful corporate campaigns they’ve done.
“The Canadian Trucking Alliance campaign results have surpassed all of our expectations, driving an industry leading four-percent conversion rate and over 1,200 employment inquiries across Canada,” says Perry Tsergas, president & CEO of Ottawa-based Spark Advocacy, which worked with CTA’s Communications department and a committee of board members to conceive and launch the campaign.
The campaign – which is aimed primarily at Millennials and Gen Z as they embark on new career paths – consists of multimedia messages that are inspirational and aspirational while highlighting the opportunities and innovations throughout the Canadian trucking industry.
Many of the ads, displayed on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tik Tok, showcase the amazing people and diversity that make our industry great; the evolving career opportunities; as well as technological and environmental innovations, lifestyle flexibility and benefits good employers provide and the sense of charitable and strong community spirit the Canadian trucking industry is renowned for.
Through the first three full months of the campaign’s inaugural year, the dozen or so graphic messages and videos have been viewed 10.5 million times across all platforms. The campaign’s flagship, ‘hero video’ was viewed over 150,000 times on its own.
Popular awareness channels like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are driving high engagement rates and click-throughs, making up close to half of all impressions; direct Google searches and website ‘display’ ads directed about 4.5 million views; while newer platforms engaged mainly by young Gen Z audiences like Tik Tok and Snapchat, also performed strongly, albeit with less impressions but higher clickthrough rates and video views than most other platforms.
Ads focusing on the industry’s vital role as the backbone of the economy and career opportunities performed well on the most popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter, while messages promoting the freedom and independence truck driving provides and the industry’s community involvement resonated more with Tik Tok audiences.
“I think the success of the campaign early on says that Canadians, including young people who communicate mainly online, are very aware of the important contributions made by the trucking industry, and truck drivers in particular, during these challenging times,” says Doug Sutherland, chair of the CTA’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Driver Shortage. “People understand very well that without professional, responsible truck drivers, the economy would simply stop. Hopefully, more people seeking career opportunities are now interested in joining our dynamic, evolving workforce; but if nothing else, if the campaign is responsible for more Canadians understanding and appreciating what we do and the pride involved in how we do it, then that in of itself is a huge success.”