Can Corporation of America — Steel Recycling Campaign

Can Corporation of America (CCA) contacted me in 2012 about planning and launching a grassroots mass media “Steel Recycling Facts” campaign to influence suppliers, manufacturers and consumers. The Blandon, Pennsylvania, based company secured an annual contract with me to lead and produce a 360° marketing free-for-all of conservative, research laced content materials for print, web, social, and a sole video production initiative. CCA—as well as its domestic and international steel suppliers and partners—utilized the campaign to attract and convert plastics, aluminum, and composite packaging food-grade suppliers to steel packaging sales.
It was an influential success for CCA, turning brand name products from plastic to steel packaging to increase sales across the industry over the course of the following years.

Due to the confidentiality clause I signed, I wasn’t allowed to outsource and contract help. It put a limit on time available to contract additional accounts and affected my overall energy by the end of the campaign. Everything you see began and ended with me—had I choice to do it again, I would negotiate terms and conditions to allow outsourcing.

Much of the social direction depended on me creating another identity to manage paid-for marketing campaigns on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter feeds in order to maintain privacy, but to also keep a distance from CCA’s involvement and influence. They paid me to influence the market—and that’s as far as they went, never once telling me what I can and can’t do as long as I promote STEEL RECYCLING FACTS. : )

I learned an awful lot about influencing stranger’s buying interests and target marketing mass audiences through their news feeds. In fact, I question the use of Social Media for anything but marketing because of this campaign. A mass majority of people who believe it’s a great way to stay in touch with family and friends have no idea what they’re signing up for—paid for marketing campaigns in exchange for their data. The campaign ran from mid-2012 through 2013. I deactivated its official domain and host site upon the campaign’s end but left its social media profiles up and running (which can still be found today).

Confidentiality and exclusivity is one major reason why CCA and I worked well for 10 years straight (2004-2014) from states and cities away before I accepted a salaried opportunity to be Executive Director at ABG (Rockford, IL). They were an easy account to manage, I’ll add—not once did they tell me what to do and they let me lead them and produce what I believed they needed to meet their goal. Many corporations can learn an awful lot from CCA and their approach to marketing—one meeting a month, ten minutes via phone, no bullshit, all results.