In short
Penn College Workforce Development reached out to UpHouse to help launch a weatherization recruitment project developed in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) with funding from by the US Department of Energy (DOE). It is a strategic initiative to address workforce shortages in the weatherization field that a new workforce readiness training program. With a goal of recruiting 1,000 new workers over the next five years, the project aims to create a long-lasting hiring pipeline, remove barriers for potential hires and increase awareness about weatherization as a stable career with clear pathways for advancement. By focusing on community engagement, standardizing processes and leveraging targeted recruitment strategies, we created an accessible campaign that built excitement around a career that starts tough, but can lead to a better future.
Methodology
The strategy behind this campaign addressed four key challenges:
- Low awareness about weatherization.
- Systemic and economic barriers preventing people from entering the workforce.
- Low pay and tough work conditions in entry-level positions.
- The need for immediate agency hires while simultaneously developing a long-term talent pipeline.
Based on these challenges, we identified three main objectives:
- Increase awareness of weatherization as a viable and desirable career path.
- Strengthen recruitment efforts by targeting both youth who need long-term career guidance and adults who are looking for immediate employment.
- Standardize hiring processes across agencies to create a smoother pathway for candidates.
The campaign then took a layered approach, reaching our potentially offline and/or disengaged audience by combining direct community engagement, digital media strategies, and local media placements to meet people where they’re at.
The messaging in this campaign is designed to resonate with hands-on learners who take things at face value. We didn’t sugar coat how hard this job could be, instead pairing a message of grit and determination with the tangible benefits of weatherization careers—such as job stability, skill-building, employer-sponsored and on-the-job training, and community impact. Our design reflected that, with bold treatments that had grit and featured custom photography with on-the-job weatherization workers where possible.
“Pairing a message of grit and determination with the tangible benefits of weatherization careers—such as job stability, skill-building, employer-sponsored and on-the-job training, and community impact.”
Recognizing that our target audience was most likely in a position where they needed work immediately or had found it hard to find work in the past, we looked for ways to show them just how easy that first step into a larger industry could be and then made it easy to connect with training and employment to make sure that rang true. Messaging was kept simple and direct with a framework that always paired accessibility with future potential, i.e. Big Futures Start Small.
We also used storytelling to capitalize on a sense of pride — particularly community pride. Recognizing that our target felt loyalty to their community, we used first person accounts from Pennsylvanians in the industry to show how this career can have an immediate personal and community-wide impact.
Execution
The campaign is structured around a unified message “Weather the Future” which acts as a rallying cry for the weatherization industry. This was our way of uniting our marketing efforts, connecting resources, building awareness for the future and setting the stage for a successful pipeline. This approach also left room for the initiative to scale nationally in the future. The execution plan includes:
- A centralized digital hub with distinct landing pages for training recruits and job applicants, guiding them toward available opportunities.
- Dedicated campaign social accounts sharing compelling narratives about weatherization careers.
- Radio ads featuring local stories on local stations.
- Digital ads made for different audiences (youth vs. adults) with clear calls to action.
- Partnerships with schools, workforce development boards, and local organizations to expand reach and promote the expansion of training opportunities.
- A recruitment toolkit featuring standardized materials to help with hiring efforts across different locations.
- Print materials like posters and educational one pagers distributed in key communities.
Outcomes
The Weather the Future campaign has recently launched, and initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Penn College Workforce Development has seen increased engagement from both job seekers and community stakeholders, showing a growing interest in weatherization careers.
Engagement was strong across the state, particularly in priority areas like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. More than 91,000 users visited the campaign website, and nearly all stayed to explore, resulting in a 98.67% engagement rate. It was clear the message of Big Futures Start Small landed with the right audience. That connection translated into action, with 290 form submissions — the majority of which expressed immediate interest in careers-related content.
On social media, the highest conversion rates came from men aged 55–64, suggesting the campaign reached older adults potentially re-entering the workforce. At the same time, TikTok drove over 11,000 clicks, with young adults engaging deeply with testimonial videos, which contributed to more than 1 million total video plays. Together, these results show the campaign’s success in connecting meaningfully with both new job seekers and those returning to the workforce.
Across all channels, the campaign generated more than 8.7 million paid impressions, reached 5.8 million people, and drove over 107,000 clicks to campaign content. It also laid the foundation for future growth, gaining 445 new Facebook followers and creating a warm audience for ongoing outreach.
