The Greater Reading Chamber Alliance (GRCA) was recently recognized by the Pennsylvania Economic Development Association (PEDA) — receiving the Economic Development Marketing Innovation Award for its talent attraction marketing campaign.
The Economic Marketing Innovation of the Year Award, “recognizes outstanding visual marketing and promotion, branding of an economic development organization or outstanding content on an economic development topic,” according to PEDA.
The award was formally announced during the 2024 PEDA Fall Conference in October.
GRCA’s ongoing talent attraction campaign is being managed by Leah Fassnacht, GRCA’s director of communications and marketing; and Audrey Krupiak, GRCA’s assistant director of communications and marketing — with funding from the County of Berks and in collaboration with RoleCall, a national talent attraction consulting agency.
Aaron Gantz, GRCA’s vice president of economic development and strategy, and Keith Stamm, GRCA’s director of workforce development, provide support for the overall Meet Greater Reading brand, the agency said in a press release.
The campaign was developed to address a top pain point of local companies — talent attraction.
“It is an honor to receive this recognition from our economic development peers at PEDA, which reinforces our commitment to a people-focused approach in our work,” Gantz, who accepted the award at the conference on behalf of the GRCA team, said in a statement.
According to the agency the Greater Reading area is attractive to new residents due to the area’s low cost of living, outdoor amenities, safety rankings and schools. These selling points and others are highlighted through a paid and organic, digital marketing campaign targeting boomerangs (a person who previously lived in the area and has since moved away), recent college graduates, those open to relocation and those working in priority industries according to GRCA.
A special emphasis is placed on nine key industries, some of which include education, healthcare, engineering, manufacturing and skilled trades.
Visitors that click on the digital ads are directed to a landing page where they are asked to fill out a basic form as well as note their desired industry, personal interests and provide a resume and/or LinkedIn profile.
Potential candidates are then aggregated into GRCA’s new Candidate Marketplace platform with access being provided to local employers. Employers who sign up to participate receive regular updates when new candidates are entered into the marketplace. Employers can sort candidates — making it user-friendly.
Prospective candidates then receive regular emails with curated information relevant to their industry and interests.
The campaign has resulted in 6.1 million impressions, 1.6 million in reach and more than 21,000 link clicks.
Organizations are eligible to win this award every three years. Fassnacht and Krupiak won the same award in 2021 for the Rebuild Berks campaign.
Berks County employers can sign up to join the Candidate Marketplace by visiting talent.meetgreaterreading.org/talent-roster-employer-access-request. Job seekers may visit talent.meetgreaterreading.org/live-here to fill out the form.
