Three years ago, the IBEW launched a national television advertising campaign with a simple goal: tell America who we are and what we do.
Since then, the IBEW Media Department has created seven 30-second ads showing the skill and dedication of our diverse membership through big stories and smaller ones. Hundreds of millions of people watching NFL games on CBS and Fox, 60 Minutes on CBS and throughout the day on CNN, Headline News and MSNBC saw the many ways and places IBEW members are rebuilding the economy. In some ads the focus was wide and took in massive construction projects. Another simply showed a journeyman wireman and his family starting their day.
 |
| The IBEW’s eighth national ad is less about what we do and more about what IBEW members can do for customers. Like the previous ads, it was created entirely in-house by broadcast members in the IBEW Media Department and will run during NFL games on Fox and CBS. |
This month the eighth spot will begin running -- first on CBS and, a month later, on Fox-- and International President Edwin D. Hill said it marks a shift in the story the IBEW wants to tell America. .
“In the beginning, the purpose was to reintroduce ourselves to the American people,” he said “Now, instead of just telling people what we do, we’re telling people what we can do for them.”
The new ad shares the look of some of the earlier ones, focusing on the smiling faces of IBEW members from across the country: Baltimore, St. Louis, Bridgeville, Del., Portland, Ore., Santa Clara, Calif., and Las Vegas. As their images pass by, the voice opens with a line about those smiles “lighting up a room” but moves quickly to a straightforward proposition about the IBEW: “Working with a Code of Excellence that guarantees the job will be done right, on-time and safely.”
“We know it makes good business sense for a contractor to hire IBEW members. This is about making sure everyone else knows it too,” Hill said.
The ad closes with “The IBEW is lighting the path to the future; let us show you just how bright that path is.”
The broad, welcoming smiles tell their own story about the IBEW in 2014. We are proud to be the best in the world at what we do. We are confident, efficient and stand by our own work and the work of our brothers and sisters. Most important, we’re optimistic about a future that demands honest, hard work and rewards it.
The ad is part of a long game, Hill said. The goal, of course, is organizing the entire industry, but we get there by giving businesses that aren’t our customers a reason to listen to our pitch.
“It’s an invitation ‘Listen to what we can do for you,’” Hill said. “If that’s all they do is listen that’s a success too, because when we get a chance, we prove how good we are.”
The ad can be seen at https://vimeo.com/108915014, and began airing during NFL broadcasts on CBS Oct. 23 and on Fox beginning in December.
View the previous ads below: