Courtesy / Burgess Advertising & Marketing
Social and online media are key elements of the MMA's HoMEtown campaign.
March 8, 2018
Campaign promoting Maine municipal jobs off to a strong start
Courtesy / Burgess Advertising & Marketing
Breeanna Zoidis, a 26-year-old paramedic and firefighter in Biddeford, talks about her job in one of the videos for the HoMetown Careers digital and social media campaign of the Maine Municipal Association.
Firefighter in Biddeford or town manager in Camden?
The Maine Municipal Association aims to convey the upside of working for local governments in its HoMEtown Careers digital and social media campaign that launched in late January. It’s already getting strong traction.
Aiming to lure young talent to careers with the organization’s 485 member municipalities, the campaign features eight video testimonials from people working for cities and towns across the state.
They include South Portland city clerk Emily Scully, Lebanon treasurer Jordan Miles and Breeanna Zoidis, a full-time firefighter and paramedic in Biddeford.
Zoidis, 26, told Mainebiz that she was happy to participate because “I’m in full support of people helping their community, helping their state, and most importantly of getting the younger generation excited to go out and do physical work.”
That message comes as emergency services throughout the state, especially in rural areas, struggle to recruit and retain workers.
The $45,000 HoMEtown Careers campaign targets both young adults starting out and more experienced people looking for a career change. From the campaign landing page, users can click through descriptions of each job presented in the campaign and current openings, as well as the MMA’s online job bank.
Stephen W. Gove, MMA’s executive director, said the campaign has been in the works for some time, in response to its members’ concerns about filling jobs.
“A lot of young people don’t realize good jobs and opportunities are available in municipal government,” he said.
And what better way to reach millennials than through websites from Amazon to Zillow and social media?
Anyone in the target demographic, for example, could be reading the Washington Post online and come across one of the ads.
“That’s how digital works. It’s pretty fascinating,” said Meredith Strang Burgess, president and CEO of Burgess Advertising & Marketing, the Falmouth-based agency behind the campaign.
Biddeford City Manager James Bennett said he likes the campaign’s message about the rewards of serving one’s community, adding: “The campaign reminds people that there are other intrinsic things that give meaning to what you do.”
Early results
While the campaign is still in the early stages, initial data shared by the MMA indicate a strong response. They include:
- 383,013 impressions during the first month of the campaign;
- MMA Job Bank page views up 18% month-over-month, a sign that people are seeing the campaign content and clicking through to the job ads;
- An increase in municipal job ads placed on the MMA Job Bank from 73 the month before the campaign to 100 one month into it; and individual videos played 2,956 times during the first month.
Gove said the campaign sought to get a good mix of small and large communities, and that a few more videos and job descriptions may be added later.
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