Skate 4 Concrete
Innovative Thinking
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Overview
In 2023, we developed a workforce marketing campaign focused on connecting Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers from Tennessee to the Skate 4 Concrete initiative. The CTE community works to expose students to skilled and technical career opportunities and paths, and we felt that they would benefit from the work that our association and Skate 4 Concrete are doing to educate students about the concrete industry. Through in person events, one-pagers, email marketing and our website, we’ve been able to connect with the CTE target audience and get students involved in this exciting workforce program and opportunity.
The Audience
Our strategy with this marketing campaign was to clearly highlight how the Skate 4 Concrete program and the TCA community fit perfectly into the CTE narrative. We know that teachers are always looking for new activities for their students, but often don’t have the resources or budget to offer such experiences. Our marketing messaging emphasized how TCA can solve that problem for them by being a resource and making their lives easier. We made it clear that TCA has the industry connections, opportunities and educational materials to open new doors for their students. Both TCA, Skate 4 Concrete and CTE educators have a shared goal – to support, educate and inspire the next generation of our state’s skilled & technical workforce. We made sure to incorporate this shared goal into all of our messaging and communications. We used a variety of different communication channels to relay this message to CTE teachers. We exhibited at the 2023 Institute for Career Technical Educators (CTE) Conference and developed a one pager and special website page for conference attendees. These resources highlighted all of our efforts to connect with prospective concrete professionals and provided educators with important information about opportunities for their students to get involved in the industry. Since then, we’ve been able to connect with nearly 700 of the conference’s attendees through email marketing efforts. We have had multiple touch-points with this audience since the conference, and continue to communicate with them on a regular basis.
The Results
We’ve been blown away by the success of this campaign, and how eager the CTE teachers are to use our resources and programs in their classrooms. One of our biggest successes has been with getting teachers to use the Skate 4 Concrete Curriculum, which includes educational materials and hands-on learning projects where students can build their own Mini Concrete Skatepark. So far, we’ve had over 20 CTE teachers sign up for this curriculum. We’ve then connected each teacher with a TCA member company who will deliver their free Mini Concrete Skatepark building kit and be available as an extra industry resource for their students. Our best performing emails to this target audience were opened by 350 teachers, received 122 clicks and garnered 23 site sessions. We’ve had CTE teachers engage with us through email and over the phone to ask questions and learn more about our resources, which shows that they’re a highly engaged audience.
What Makes This Campaign Unique
What sets this campaign apart is that it really includes two target audiences– teachers, and their students. We’ve had to keep students in our mind every step of the way, even if we weren’t directly communicating with them. In the same way that CTE educators need free resources and activities, students want to gain real-world experience and jumpstart their careers. We’ve found unique ways to bring students into the TCA community through various activities and opportunities, like our TCA High School Essay Contest. This year, we’re launching a special Best Mini Skatepark Award for students that will be a part of our association’s Annual Design Awards. Students will not only be recognized for their hard work and commitment to learning, but will be able to make new connections with TCA members and industry leaders. Through this campaign, we’ve been able to bridge the gap between students, teachers and TCA members, and strengthen the next generation of our industry’s workforce.