Olympic Steel Employee Branding Campaign

Olympic Steel engaged Blue Communications to create an internal brand with a strong visual identity to enhance their employee communications and serve as the foundation for strengthening their corporate culture.

Client: Olympic Steel
Industry: Steel, Metal Fabrication
Number of Employees: 1,800 employees

When Olympic Steel’s new CEO, Rick Marabito took over the reins, he developed a five-year plan to strengthen the corporate culture and engage managers and employees in his vision for the company. One of his top priorities was building a safety mindset within Olympic Steel.

To assist in communicating with employees, Olympic Steel asked Blue to create the company’s first-ever employee brand campaign. The intention of the brand was to create a strong visual identity for consistent communication and to show — rather than just talk about — the attitude the company wants employees to model and the actions they want them to take.

Blue started by collecting guidance from leadership and feedback from employees in focus groups.

Based on this feedback, we create the “I AM Olympic Steel” brand.

The brand uses an authentic voice that resonates throughout the company and weaves together stories from employees’ experiences to demonstrate the value of benefits, career growth and all the ways Olympic Steel is committed to supporting its current and future employees. The intent is for employees to relate to — not just understand — the messaging. We want them to go a step further and enthusiastically add, “…and I could do that, too!”

The cornerstone of the campaign was and still is a robust microsite for employees and their families. It features news, success stories and articles about Olympic Steel’s people, the organization and the metals industry.

Employee and leadership feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and I AM Olympic Steel continues to deliver a strong visual identity for the company’s employee communications!