MARCOM MATTERS

Enhancing the OAPC brand through thought leadership

John Provenzano Director, Marketing & Communications

I define thought leadership as a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, expertise, and passion inside your business to consistently answer the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience on a particular topic. Thought leadership is part of an overall strategy used to build credibility within an organization. The main goal of thought leadership is for an organization to be recognized as an expert and used as a go-to resource in that field. For an organization to be seen as a thought leader it should create and promote educational, helpful content and become active in the industry community.

An organization like OAPC might use thought leadership to provide value to its audiences to demonstrate its brand helpfulness. Then, down the road when someone is seeking a product or service like the ones we provide, they’ll consider OAPC an expert and turn to us first. If we become good at it, we’ll increase awareness among our target audiences, improve social proof, and boost engagement online.

Our OAPC membership is made up of the best and brightest minds in asphalt. These minds are well-respected individuals and experts in their field. As an organization, we produce many articles, reports and FAQs about the benefits of asphalt, improvements being made to asphalt, and the work we are doing to help the environment. We are approached on a regular basis by media as industry experts. Now we are at the point where we have to reach out to new audiences and begin enhancing our brand.

We should start focusing on reaching out to the general public about the great work OAPC does when it comes to the environment. The environment and climate change are mainstream topics that are covered in daily newspapers, magazines, and online publications. Our organization and asphalt producers are making great strides in reducing emissions, and we have also made advances in the fight against climate

change. We must start communicating our great work to the mainstream; we have to start talking about warm mix asphalt, RAP and the industry’s commitment to the environment.

Recently, I negotiated a partnership between ORBA and Metroland Media, a division of the Toronto Star, to publish an opinion column every month. The monthly column will include OAPC topics, helping us to reach a broader and more diverse audience. The column will run in 70 online community newspapers across Ontario, including Toronto.com, the Star.com, the Hamilton Spectator, the Vaughan Weekly and the Mississauga News to name a few. Our audience will increase from 100,000 potential readers to 10 million potential readers across Ontario.

This strategy has a cascading effect. As we create our own content, we begin to control our message. This content is then shared by ORBA and OAPC on our social media channels, like LinkedIn and Twitter, further amplifying our message. The cascading continues as members and non-members alike begin to visit our social channels to get their information on the road building industry. More visits to our social channels mean more visitors and followers who share our posts which in turn increases engagement.

Our first two columns have already been published: “Be patient, be safe and never pass a snow plow” and “Where do roads go when they die?” I’ll give you an update on how our opinion pieces have been received. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing from you on possible column ideas. You will also be hearing from me when the media comes calling looking for a quote from an industry leader.