Michigan Hospitality Foundation
Growing the Michigan ProStart Program
Goal: To gain media hits for the MHF ProStart curriculum by 50 percent and increase the number of schools that offer the program by 10 schools.
Notable Awards/Recognitions:
- First-place Pinnacle Award for Integrated Communications Campaign and Best in Show award
Research:
While some may view the hospitality trade as a part-time stepping stone, the industry provides a very real pathway to sustainable wages and long-term careers. It is also an economic catalyst and the heart of many downtowns throughout Michigan.
ProStart is a nationwide, two-year high school curriculum that develops promising students into tomorrow’s restaurant and foodservice industry leaders by combining classroom lessons and industry experience for a seamless transition from school to career.
Through quantitative and qualitative research, we found that the ProStart campaign received relatively few media mentions.
To understand some of the common obstacles and struggles that hospitality employees face, Bellwether collaborated with an advertising partner to conduct a survey of 75 members of the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association. Through this survey, we discovered that many people frequently had to overcome common misconceptions about hospitality not being a “real” career path and/or not offering a full-time career.
An additional survey was conducted with stakeholders to help refine the messaging.
Action Plan & Communication Overview:
To achieve our goal, we employed a range of tactics, including earned media, influencer engagement, social media, and paid advertising.
We heavily leaned into sharing the success stories of those who have been involved with ProStart in the past. The primary way we did this was by utilizing earned media. We successfully pitched statewide and regional LTEs and op-eds.
Another component of sharing success stories was using social media and influencers. The influencer campaign focused on parent influencers speaking to their peers, as well as millennials in the industry or adjacent to it, sharing their experiences.
Additionally, Brogan & Partners, our advertising partner, placed digital advertising, native advertising, social media advertising on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok.
By increasing awareness of the program and garnering media attention for its benefits, schools were more likely to adopt it.
Evaluation:
Overall, the campaign exceeded expectations. Thirteen new Michigan schools adopted the ProStart program, and 1,300 new students participated statewide, surpassing our objective of 10 new schools offering the program, which was 83 schools.
We exceeded our second objective by increasing media coverage 256 percent year-over-year. Stories grew from 16 media mentions in 2021-2022 to 57 mentions in 2023 alone. The earned media campaign resulted in a total estimated reach of 145,666,522, comprising a print reach of 132,908,707, a radio reach of 70,386, and a television reach of 7,687,429.
