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Hybrid social media and video campaign

Celebrating the heroes who build Michigan

Client Michigan Laborers District Council

THE CHALLENGE

Lack of communication from Labor Union management has led to members not being aware of all the benefits they receive by paying union dues. And, Michigan’s "right to work" law now gives workers the choice to stop paying dues and still benefit from collective bargaining.

THE GOAL

With the Our Union Stories campaign, dedicated Labor Union members tell stories illustrating the positive benefits they’ve received as members. Our goal is to clearly illustrate the value of Labor Union membership, making workers proud to contribute financially.

Campaign results

OUS exceeded expectations, drawing fans from 18 US states and Canada.

3k+

followers in the first 1.5 years of running the campaign

28k+

total likes, comments, and shares in the same time period

41%

of followers are Millenials and Gen-Z under age 35

We even attracted followers from other trades unions, which shows this campaign is positioning MI Laborers as an industry leader. Most importantly, engagement is high—OUS followers regularly leave thoughtful comments and share stories from their careers.

Our approach

Before making any substantial recommendations, we established a deep understanding of the client. We spent several weeks studying their business model, researching the target audience, and facilitating a complete discovery process to establish an empathetic point of view.

When we analyzed our client's previous marketing materials, we noticed that they tend to use very direct calls-to-action and sales-like language. We had a hunch that sharing one-on-one personal stories would help humanize the union's image and make it more appealing to both members of the public and potential recruits. In addition, we needed a new media-savvy approach to storytelling across multiple platforms to engage a diverse audience and attract younger fans.

We knew the Laborers’ existing brand identity should be an integral part of the OUS campaign, but the new media channels and narrative should also move in a fresh direction and should be independently-branded. We developed some key aspects of the campaign upfront:

  • Motto: "Honest photos and personal interviews with the hardworking men and women who are building Michigan."
  • Themes: Success, strength, and loyalty
  • Visual language: Foundational and simultaneously aspirational
  • Tone: Familial language like "union brothers and sisters"
  • Other key phrases: "union strong", "union proud"

Logo development happened fairly quickly from there since we were 100% prepared. With an eye towards scaling the campaign in the future, we designed several versions of the logo: a podcast logo, a standard logo for horizontal use, a standard stacked logo for compressed spaces, an app/icon symbol, and several color variations.

Members have a strong affinity for the Labor Union's orange brand color, so we carried this into OUS. In the past, the client has leaned towards bolder styles. We made our logo lighter and more minimal, providing a breath of fresh air.
Our Union Stories logo

Next, we set up pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. With this campaign, in particular, it was important to post consistently to build momentum. We established a production process that allowed us to publish high-quality interview content on social media every week.

Each week, we publish one OUS post on a dedicated union member. A social media graphic is accompanied by an inspirational written quote. OUS posts are always organic and natural, never overtly posed or sales-like.
Our Union Stories social media graphic

In addition to the OUS posts, we regularly published ads to attract new followers, and conversational posts to keep members engaged. We also created several print ads for placement in the Michigan Laborer Magazine, which we were developing alongside of OUS.

We created a series of creative ads and boosted posts on Facebook to reach Labor Union fans all over North America. Once they “liked” our content, we invited them to follow the OUS page. This strategy enabled our audience to grow from 0 to over 3,000.
Our Union Stories advertisement

As soon as the social media campaign got its legs, we were onto the next thing. We crafted a series of mini-documentaries on the themes of success, strength, and loyalty featuring the OUS Labor heroes. Our goal with the films was to diversify our content offering, as well as to experiment with longer-form video content, which we believed would help expand the campaign to a larger audience and new platforms.

OUS is a huge success and there are two videos slated for release in 2019. Also in 2019, we will begin experimenting with shorter videos for Instagram’s “Stories” feature and other online short-format slots.

Our first OUS video was on the theme of "Success." This short film featured several of our Labor heroes and their stories of success in life, work, and family. Click here to view the film.
Our Union Stories video cover photo

Project milestones

  • Life-Saving Story

    March 2018

    The OUS campaign had an important early win made possible by our team’s willingness to drop everything and get into the field for an important breaking story: one Labor hero who saved his co-worker's life on the job. This story attracted a lot of attention, and our fledgling campaign got its wings. The 7-post series received 4,300+ total likes, comments, and shares.

  • Female Trailblazer Honored

    September 2018

    We highlighted an awesome role model—Michigan Laborer’s first female member to retire with a full pension. This story was quickly shared by LIUNA International, which has over 120,000 Facebook fans.

  • Labor Day Stories: Special Series

    September 2018

    In celebration of Labor Day, we created special 5-post series featuring a wide range of members enjoying the Detroit parade. These photos showed the camaraderie between co-workers, and the pride in their families.

  • OUS Video Launch

    January 2019

    We launched a 3-minute trailer video announcing the Our Union Stories video campaign. From the onset, we received very positive comments from our audience!

  • OUS from the Field Contest

    February 2019

    We ran 1.5-month social media contest where Laborers from all across North America submitted their own “Union Stories” for a chance to be featured on the OUS page. We received 34 entries and re-posted the top 8. Instagram followers increased by 300% in 1.5 months.

  • Nuclear Power Plant Story

    April 2019

    Incredibly, just one year after our first life-saving story went live, we had the chance to tell another one! In this case, two female union members working together at a nuclear power plant saved their co-worker's life.

  • Future Labor Member Spotlights

    May 2019

    Wanting to get some fresh faces on the page, we did a story on two local high school students who are considering joining the union. This elicited a positive response from the more-experienced members, who were eager to share their wisdom with newcomers.

"I love these stories. I looooooooove seeing how my union brothers and sisters are succeeding in their lives and careers."

Juan Morales
Labor Union member
Laborers Local 1076

"These videos will be really encouraging for those of us who get exhausted and discouraged—but choose this lifestyle."

Leah Schwer
Labor Union member
Laborers Local 1091

Let's make magic happen

Contact us today for a free 1/2 hour consultation.

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