Association of Equipment Manufacturers

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) wanted to significantly increase involvement and advocacy on key issues among its more than 800 member companies. The “I Make America” campaign used a combination of traditional and new media tactics, targeted grassroots activities, and member company outreach with the goal of significantly increasing campaign members and converting interested supporters to active advocates. Not only did Qorvis Communications develop the name and all of the messaging for the campaign, our digital and creative teams also produced all campaign collateral, including the campaign’s website, branded social media channels, fact sheets, and print advertisements, while the media team drafted all LTE and opinion editorials.

“I Make America” started from scratch – no supporters, no online presence and no followers on social media. Within 18 months of the launch of the campaign, the campaign recruited a celebrity spokesperson (Mike Rowe) and gathered more than 30,000 campaign sign-ups. Original OpEds from AEM leadership and interviews with AEM member CEOs on national outlets, as well as significant local coverage, resulted in hundreds of thousands of impressions and increased awareness for the manufacturing community. Perhaps most importantly, the campaign drove thousands of letters and phone calls to Congress, pushing for better import agreements and infrastructure spending. Within 2 years of the campaign launch, three import agreements were passed and an extension was passed on the highway bill to support ongoing infrastructure projects.