Fresh off its Foxconn manufacturing plant win, Wisconsin is taking aim at Chicago's millennial talent pool, with a marketing campaign designed to lure young skilled workers to move north of the border.
The $1 million marketing blitz, which launched this week, uses social media, online advertising, and display ads on "L" trains and in Chicago-area health clubs, restaurants and bars. The message is that Wisconsin offers lower rents, shorter commutes and a better quality of life for millennials "disillusioned" by Chicago.
"We recognize that it is common for millennials to seek opportunities in urban areas such as Chicago, but after a period of time many of them want to move away from the hassles of big-city living," Tricia Braun, chief operating officer of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said in a news release. "However, our research has shown that individuals living outside of Wisconsin have a very limited perception of the opportunities _ both career and lifestyle _ that are available in our state."
Ads popped up on the outside and inside of 15 CTA Brown Line cars this week. In addition, posters went up at downtown Chicago health clubs, while drink coasters deliver Wisconsin's pitch to millennials at restaurants and bars.
Wisconsin is hoping the Brown Line _ which, along with the Purple Line, is one of only two CTA lines that run through the Loop but not through the city's South or West sides _ will reach the very specific target audience it is seeking.
"The Brown Line was chosen because it travels within the downtown Loop and North Side neighborhoods popular with millennials," said Mark Maley, spokesman for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the state's Madison-based development arm.
Digital advertising includes sponsored posts on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, streaming ads on Pandora and YouTube, and mobile ads targeting millennials within a 25-mile radius of downtown Chicago and north to the Wisconsin state line.
The ads promote employment opportunities, rents that are 42 percent lower in Milwaukee than Chicago, shorter commutes and the natural resources exiles from Chicagoland can explore with their extra money and time in Wisconsin.
The tagline is: "Wisconsin. It's more you."
The campaign, created by Milwaukee ad agency Nelson Schmidt, is scheduled to run through June, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has proposed an additional $6.8 million investment to expand it beyond disillusioned Chicago millennials to other markets and target audiences.
"That would take what we're doing in Chicago and expand it to Minneapolis and other Midwestern cities _ the same thing, aimed at millennials," Maley said Wednesday. "It would also be used for ... attracting veterans transitioning from the military nationwide."
Maley said a third element of the expanded campaign, if approved by the Legislature, would be to draw Wisconsin expatriates scattered across the country back to their home state.
For now, the focus is on draining Chicago's millennial talent pool, a mission that becomes both more viable and more urgent after it was announced last summer that Foxconn would build a $10 billion flat-screen factory in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin lured Foxconn Technology Group to Mount Pleasant in eastern Racine County with a nearly $3 billion incentive package, provided the Taiwan-based manufacturer invests at least $9 billion in the facility and hires 13,000 workers.
