By all accounts the Canadian Trucking Alliance’s Choose to Truck campaign is knocking it out of the park.

Image problems have plagued our industry for decades. I remember getting routinely razzed by my university buddies for working in such a “sleazy” business. I didn’t grasp how bad it was until I became a director at Trucking HR Canada, an industry council that advances modern human resources solutions for our industry.

I played “word association” with some high school guidance counsellors, who can be very influential with students when post-secondary education is not in the cards. Word association is the game where one person says a word and then the other says the first word that pops into their head.

In every case, the counsellors’ first word after “trucking” made me realize how deeply seeded our image problems are. Frankly, they seemed insurmountable.

Today I’m confident the CTA’s campaign will change the perception of our brand and help us attract the talent the trucking industry needs so badly to grow. Here’s why.

Perfect timing

Some folks in the industry think an image campaign should have happened decades ago. I disagree.

Prior to the pandemic the only time anyone paid attention to trucking was after an accident was splashed all over the newspapers. The essential work we do every day was taken for granted. An image campaign would have been a colossal waste of money.

Things are different today.

Despite recent political horn-blowing in Ottawa, Canadians see truckers as keeping life moving during the past two years. They recognize how essential we are to the economy. More are interested in the business as a career.

The timing of this image campaign could not be better.

Hired pros

To execute the industry’s largest public relations campaign in history, the CTA partnered with Spark Advocacy, an Ottawa-based public affairs and advertising agency.

Most business folks including myself know enough about marketing to be dangerous. Trust me, I learned the hard way that you need professional expertise to have any hope of getting measurable results for your marketing investment.

In the first three months, the CTA’s campaign had a 4% conversion rate with 1,200 employment inquiries. That may not sound like a lot but it’s exceptional. Results like this would have been pipe dreams without the help of seasoned marketing pros.

Storytelling

When I checked out the Sparks website the first thing I noticed was this quote: “At the core we are storytellers….”

A compelling story lets marketers develop deeper, more personal connections to the audience. Stories are also a powerful tool for learning as they help convey knowledge and meaning in today’s complicated and fragmented media world.

Aimed at Millennials and Gen Zs, Choose to Truck uses social media like Facebook, Tik Tok, Twitter and Instagram to tell stories about how the industry is evolving in terms of career opportunities, lifestyle, technology and the environment.

The campaign’s images and videos have been viewed an astonishing 10.5 million times or close to 110,000 times per day. The best news? I had to hear about it from a buddy. I’m an old, dyed-in-wool trucker. My younger pal? Right on target.

More than drivers

What excites me the most about Choose to Truck is that it’s not just about filling empty truck seats. It encompasses the whole industry. We need talent in every area.

Trucking also competes with other sectors for bright young minds.  Everyone I know regardless of their industry is in hiring mode. Most are having about as much luck as we are.

By telling the story of an industry filled with amazing opportunities, the Choose to Truck campaign will go a long way toward changing the narrative about trucking.

We’ve always been an industry of resourceful, entrepreneurial, hardworking people. It’s time for Canadians to see it.