ThinkEauClaire.com wins regional Chamber Digital Campaign Award

ThinkEauClaire.com, the website and video launched by the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce for use by local employers to help them recruit talent from outside the area, has earned the “Digital Campaign of the Year” award from the Mid America Chamber Executives (MACE). The award was presented last week at the organization’s annual conference in Sioux Falls, SD.
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“As the Chamber rolled out its Employers Workforce Initiative in 2018, a recurring theme among companies was the need for a persuasive tool to assist them in asserting the positive attributes of the Eau Claire and Chippewa Valley region,” said Dave Minor, Eau Claire Chamber President and CEO. “Our community has recently gained significant attention in regional and national media for its cultural, economic and outdoor recreation qualities, and employers want to take advantage of this as they interact with potential employees from other areas.”

Left: Scott Rogers, Governmental Affairs & Workforce Director and Dave Minor, President & CEO
Right: 2019 Digital Campaign of the Year Award, Mid America Chamber Executives

To accomplish this, the Chamber partnered with Volume One, the local media organization that has been a significant catalyst in Eau Claire’s ascendance. It funded the production of the website and video to highlight the unique attributes of Thriving, Working and Living in the Chippewa Valley, including testimonials from individuals who’ve recently moved to the area. “The video is evocative of the spirit of the community and especially designed to appeal to individuals and families who would be drawn to the characteristics of Eau Claire that appeal to their lifestyles,” said Scott Rogers, the Chamber’s Governmental Affairs & Workforce Director.
 
By simply linking to the ThinkEauClaire.com URL, local employers can use it to tell the community’s story to complement their own company’s story and benefits. The website itself was carefully designed to be graphically interesting and both mobile and desktop friendly. There is an accompanying Facebook page: www.facebook.com/thinkeauclaire/

The project was built in a way that also makes it feasible for employers to customize the website and video to specifically promote their own organizations. The first to do this was Royal Credit Union, a major regional financial institution headquartered in downtown Eau Claire.  See: https://www.rcu.org/about-us/careers

The Think Eau Claire theme was also developed to support and complement the State of Wisconsin’s “Think-Make-Happen” talent marketing initiative, which especially targets Midwest millennials, Wisconsin alumni and former residents, and transitioning veterans.
 
The campaign was launched at the Chamber’s “Workforce Solutions Summit” on October 29, 2018. Since then, the video has achieved over 87,000 views, there have been more than 4,000 visitors to the website, and it appears near the top in Google search results for “Eau Claire relocation.” Website visitors have come primarily from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, but other states consistently in the top 10 include California, Virginia, New York, Oregon and Texas.

Posted by Scott Rogers, Governmental Affairs & Workforce Director
rogers@eauclairechamber.org