The U.S. is facing a critical shortage of skilled tradespeople at the same time that young people are looking for new career options. Our goal for this campaign was to draw awareness to the lack of tradespeople and inspire young men and women of all backgrounds to consider a career in the skilled trades. We drove people to visit Path to Pro website to explore scholarships, training, and networking opportunities for both employers and laborers, and learn more about the trades gap.

Make pro tradespeople seem just as cool, and just as impressive, as pro athletes.

Our strategy was to leverage the American football postseason to engage aspiring tradespeople, skilled trades employers, and the public in general. We optimized NFL and college media placements, and designed a campaign that drew a simple, but dramatic parallel between the trades and athletics. By portraying the skilled trades as an aspirational, heroic career path available, we showed that there is more than one way to go pro.

The results were immediate. On day 1, over 5,000 people visited the Path to Pro website and during the course of the campaign, over 1 million people viewed it – that’s a 908% increase in traffic. Job applications skyrocketed to an all-time high and registrations increased by 384% – another record high. Over social media, people commented to show their love of the work and the trades.