ST. LOUIS — The Equipment Dealers Foundation (EDF), the charitable arm of the Equipment Dealers Assn. (EDA), announced the launch of its newest workforce development initiative, an educational marketing campaign designed to increase awareness and change perceptions of careers in the equipment industry.

More specifically, EDF wishes to familiarize parents and educators of middle and early high school students about the advantages of a career as an equipment technician. To this end, EDF contracted with 2Novas, a marketing firm out of St. Louis, to create digital advertisements, long and short-form videos and resource kits for educators and parents and their students.

After an initial test run in central Illinois in late 2019, the EDF board of directors gave its approval to broaden the scope of the campaign. Nationally 2Novas is focusing on areas within 30 miles of equipment dealerships identified by EDA.  Ads are being placed on Facebook and other digital platforms while additional content is available on EDF’s workforce development page.

“It is the hope of the EDF Board of Directors that this campaign helps in our broader workforce development goal of bringing awareness to the needs of our industry and closing the skills gap,” said Tom Nobbe, part owner of Sydenstricker-Nobbe Partners and Chairman of the EDF Board of Directors. “We were encouraged by the results of the test run we completed last year and we hope to see similar engagement with the full-fledged campaign in 2020.”

EDF is also releasing a Dealer Media Suite, a comprehensive toolkit of advertising collateral that dealers can use absolutely free.  With these customizable materials, dealers can place ads in their local media, compounding the efforts of EDF and supporting their own recruitment efforts. Dealers can download a kit here.

This project is currently being supported solely by EDF reserves, but that’s not sustainable in the long-term so EDF is applying for grant funds and requesting donations from industry supporters. “We hope to be able to continue tweaking and improving this campaign over the next five years at least,” says Joe Dykes, VP of Industry Relations for EDA and Secretary/Treasurer of EDF.  “Due to the nature of the audience we’re targeting it will be at least that long until we see truly measurable results.” Donations to the EDF can be made online here and are tax-deductible!