Jonkoping is a city in Southern Sweden with about 100.000 inhabitants - and growing. Helena Nordström from Destination Jönköping agreed to give us an insight into "We Miss You" - a campaign they have been running in the last months in Sweden to attract new talent to the city.
One of the campaign posters reading: Sofia Dahllöf - Your best friend Maria Lindén misses you <3
What is the aim of the campaign and the reason you started this?
The campaign is part of the project Welcome2work which was established in 2007 as a platform to attract talents to Jönköping. The project is runned by Destination Jönköping in cooperation with 40 employers in the region. The reason we started the campaign is that people are listening to their own network when it comes to different kinds of decisions, for example where to move. So we decided to ask the citizens of Jönköping who they are missing, who they want to Jönköping, for making it possible for us to then start to influence these people.
What is your target group and what channels are you focusing on to reach out to them?
The main target group is people between 28 and 38 years old, in big cities, searching for high-level jobs. After 38 the tendency to move is decreasing. In the first step the focus was to reach citizens of Jönköping. We reached them through billboards and web ads. The output of the first step was a couple of hundred addresses to people in our target group. The day before Christmas they received a gift from Jönköping with a letter from the one that want the them to move to Jönköping.
In April we started the next step of the campaign where we tell people that someone in Jönköping is missing them. In Gothenburg we have bought bill boards with greetings from Jönköping and from the person that are missing someone. In Stockholm you can hear personal greetings at Radio NRJ. In Malmö we focus on Facebook Ads. In addition to that we have several different Youtube videos where cititzens in Jönköping tell who they are missing and why. Only a week after the start of the campaign we could track a viral effect on the web, mainly on Facebook and Twitter.
You say that 40 companies are behind the initiative. What kind of companies are they?
The power of the project Welcome2work is that it consists of a wide range of employers who are an active part of our market activities. Since 2007 we have visited Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö several times with own events where we have invited people curious of a life in Jönköping. The employers are always attending the events to make it possible for our target group to talk directly to the specific employers they are interested in.
In August we are trying another kind of event. We are chartering an aero plane from Stockholm and are inviting young talents to a flight to Jönköping where they can experience the city, have a look at residential areas and meet employers.
The Visaknardig Campaign is helping us to make people curious about a life in Jönköping.
How has the reaction been? Are you seeing people viewing Jönköping in a different way, or maybe considering Jönköping as a realistic alternative as a place to live and work?
Yes, and we have a tight dialouge with the people considering Jönköping, helping them to find the right people to talk to when they are looking for a work, a house, kindergarten for the children and so on. We even offer a network called Newcomers Club with 8 meetups every year, making it easier to get to know people and to experience their new home town.
Most DMO's seem to focus primarely on tourists but you're also trying to get people to relocate to Jönköping. Do you think DMO's should have a broader focus in general? Why?
In Jönköping we have chosen to gather different kinds of attraction activities in the same organisation. In Destination Jönköping we are working to attract tourists, citizens and companies. We believe that this wide focus makes us a very powerful organisation with synergies between the different target groups. Jönköping is increasing and we are, in cooperation with several organisations, working hard to make sure Jönköping is an attractive choice in the future.
For information about Jönköping visit Destination Jönköping or follow Helena Nordström on Twitter.
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