MADE FOR ROCKFORD: RESEARCH THAT BECAME A SUCCESSFUL REGIONAL TALENT ATTRACTION BRAND

GrahamSpencer created Made for Rockford through GSearch research & planning, brand strategy and the creation of a successful talent attraction campaign. Years later, the idea is still growing.

Like many Midwestern communities, Rockford has long faced an economic development challenge that can’t be solved by attracting businesses alone. At GrahamSpencer, we’ve known this fact for literally decades and that is demonstrably evident in our portfolio dating back to the 1980s:

1. Employers need talented people.
2. Attracting talented people means attracting them not simply to a job, but to a place they want to call home.

In 2021, the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau engaged GrahamSpencer to explore how the Rockford Region might compete more effectively for talent. The working title of the project was “Rockford Regional Marketing Plan.”

First, We Had to Understand Who Might Choose Rockford, and Why

For months, GrahamSpencer conducted an extensive process, working with RACVB’s assembled blue-ribbon committee of regional business and civic leaders.

We conducted primary and secondary research, exploring perceptions and migration patterns, studying competitive communities in the Midwest and other regions, examining housing, employment, cost of living, quality of life and the rational and emotional factors that influence where people choose to live.

The resulting GSearch report approached 300 pages. The value in the study is not measured by the page or pound, however. The value lies in the process that created it, which helped us see Rockford differently.

One important audience was boomerangers—people who had lived in the Rockford Region, moved away and had come home or were considering coming home. What they said about Rockford was revealing and confidence-inducing. Other hopeful information (and a few cautionary tales) were revealed by prospective homebuyers and professionals in industries important to the regional economy, including engineering, healthcare, education and aerospace.

The research also helped us understand what Rockford could credibly promise them.

Affordability Isn’t Really About Affordability

Rockford’s attainable cost of living was clearly a competitive advantage. But people don’t aspire to spend less. They aspire to what spending less makes possible in their lives. They aspire to living bigger lives.

A larger home. A fenced-in yard. A shorter commute. More time with family. More money for experiences. Greater access to recreation. More opportunity to become involved in the community.

Respondents also validated what we had been saying in economic development work for many years: that Rockford is a place where people can raise their hands and make a difference, where they can start something, join something, be part of something bigger than themselves…and assimilate into the community quickly. It’s a community for hand-raisers that extends its hand to all people.

These Insights Became Made for Rockford

From the GSearch findings and strategy, GrahamSpencer created Made for Rockford—the name, brand identity, positioning, messaging platform, digital experience and original talent attraction campaign that had a successful three-month run in multiple target markets.

The idea was particularly appropriate for a city of makers.

Rockford has spent generations making things—products, businesses, neighborhoods, institutions and opportunities. Made for Rockford turned that history into an invitation to people interested in making something of their own.

The campaign brought the idea to life with messages including:

• If you want to own your life, not rent it you’re Made for Rockford.
• If you’re a rider without a trail, you’re Made for Rockford.
• If you’re a chef without a chef’s kitchen, you’re Made for Rockford.

Different lives. Different motivations. One underlying proposition: What could you have more of if you lived in the Rockford Region?

We Tested and Measured the Idea in Three Markets.

In February 2022, GrahamSpencer launched the initial Made for Rockford digital campaign targeting prospective residents in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison.

The campaign used programmatic display, Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn and Search. Targeting incorporated the research itself—reaching potential homebuyers, people with behavioral connections to Rockford, professionals in key industries, real-estate shoppers and other audiences demonstrating an interest in moving.
The markets responded.

In just the February 23–March 13 portion of the test, programmatic advertising generated more than 1.36 million impressions and 4,500 clicks, with a 0.33% click-through rate against a 0.20% benchmark.

Facebook and Instagram generated another 1,494 website clicks and a 1.78% click-through rate. That’s nearly twice the 0.90% benchmark.

The research had produced an idea. The campaign demonstrated that people responded to it.

The Campaign Paused, but the Idea Endured.
After the initial digital campaign, Made for Rockford was largely dormant for the next two or three years.

Then the renamed RACVB, now called GoRockford, brought it back as originally envisioned in the GSearch recommendations—as a living process and department of GoRockford that features staff, outreach, events and other campaign elements.

With dedicated program leadership in-house at GoRockford, Made For Rockford has become an ongoing regional talent attraction and retention initiative involving employers, newcomer events, community ambassadors, storytelling and other efforts designed to help people discover Rockford and to become connected to it once they arrive.

At GS, we’re proud that the core concept that grew out of months of research has found its legs and a future.

Meanwhile, More People Are Discovering Rockford.

There’s another reason Made for Rockford looks particularly interesting in hindsight. Rockford has become one of America’s hottest housing markets.

Realtor.com ranked Rockford the No. 1 hottest housing market in America in December 2024 and subsequent national rankings have continued to recognize the region for its unusual combination of housing demand, affordability and quality of life.

The world is catching on. And catching up.

Of course, cities aren’t made by marketing campaigns. This city and its future were and are made by thousands of people over generations.

Unlike communities blessed with mountains, oceans or other obvious (and easily leveraged) natural attractions, much of Rockford’s attractiveness is decidedly man-made. Our industrious, ambitious people have taken what was always here and made more of it. Since 1987, GrahamSpencer has been here along the way to help brand, promote and, in some cases, build initiatives that have substantially improved Rockford’s livability.

We’ve helped turn blank walls into public art, helped launch a movement to make Rockford a more welcoming community, helped breathe new life into a landmark industrial building and helped celebrate homegrown people and stories that give Rockford pride—and get the world’s attention.

From inception, GrahamSpencer has done economic development, place-making and tourism research, strategy, branding and marketing – much of it right here at home. For nearly four decades, we’ve helped Rockford attract visitors, businesses, investment and people—while sometimes helping create and shape the very things that make people want to be here in the first place.

Made for Rockford sits squarely within that history.

Because perhaps the most interesting thing about the original Made for Rockford GSearch is that it identified something before the national rankings did.

Rockford isn’t simply affordable. It offers value: more room, more time, more access, more opportunity and the possibility of a bigger life.

That’s what the research uncovered. That’s what became Made for Rockford. And years later, both the program and the community continue to demonstrate that the central idea is honest and durable.

And in the process, Rockford itself just keeps becoming more Made for Rockford.