New recruiting ads focus on Army careers

[CommunityEditor]

The Army rolled out five new recruiting commercials that are aimed directly at prospects — rather than parents and other “influencers” — inviting them to “see what it’s like” to be a soldier by visiting the Army recruiting Web site.

Like the first eight commercials launched in October 2006, the new ads use the slogan “Army Strong” and the catchy, victorious music to match.

But unlike those ads, some of which featured touching scenes at kitchen tables between soldiers and their parents, the five new ones place heavy emphasis on the career opportunities available to Army-trained people.

“As it turns out, camouflage is a great way to get noticed,” comes the commanding voice of actor Gary Sinise, who in a low register informs the viewer the Army offers “150 careers in the strength America’s top employers are looking for.”

The family scenes are still out there, but now they’re on the newly overhauled http://www.goarmy.com, which launches with an opening video showing a stack of infantrymen in a smoky alleyway and ends with an invitation to “click on any video” to see other career choices, none of which is combat arms.

“People already know about the infantry, but they don’t necessarily understand the rest of the Army. This is an opportunity to give them a look at our other careers,” said Accessions Command spokesman Lt. Col. Dan Lee, who said the fact that the Army is at war is also represented in the new ads.

The Army exceeded its December recruiting mission for all three components, but that wasn’t the case last summer, when, for two months, the active component missed recruiting goals.

The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have hurt recruiting, but Army leaders also point to a shrinking pool of people between the ages of 17 and 24 who meet Army standards and a robust civilian job market as key reasons enlisting new soldiers has been tough.

The Army is in the process of producing dozens more videos for the Web site because, Lee said, focus groups with high school and college students revealed that 18- to 24-year-olds generally prefer watching videos to reading a wall of text.

That led to the video-rich content now on the site, presented in a horizontal column of streaming thumbnails that pop up on a rollover of the cursor and play as full videos on the main screen with a click of the mouse.

Other tabs offer more videos on basic training, what it’s like being a soldier, weapons and technology, and the Army’s components. One tab is specifically for parents.

At the end of each video, the viewer is prompted to click on another box for additional information on related topics and jobs.

The new commercials and Web site content were produced by advertising giant McCann Erickson, which created Army Strong on an initial two-year, $200 million contract.

Active duty, Reserve and National Guard soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Drum, N.Y.; and Austin, Texas, are featured in the new 30-second ads.

One of the ads shows people in civilian clothes at their workplaces, talking about their experiences as soldiers in Iraq, about what the Army has done for them and how it has made them strong.

The Army, they say, taught them how to be team players, how to be decisive, to be a leader, to be strong mentally, physically and emotionally.

Another ad says the Army provides skills to build a better future through training that “takes you to your strongest point.” None of the ads mention money for college.

In the ad aimed at potential reservists, the message stresses the chance to “serve your community one day and your country the next.”

“The purpose of the commercials is to drive people to go to the Web site and get them interested in the Army through that medium,” Lee said.


Article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/0...oarmy_080113w/
Video: http://www.militarytimes.com/multime...yvidfull1_384k

Okay, so with a total Army strength hovering around 500,000, $200 million/year is about $400 per Soldier. That's on the advertising campaign alone. Does this include the other funds for stock car racing, drag racing, and other publicity costs? The total amount may not be enough to significantly raise pay, but $200 million buys a lot of housing, a lot of medical care, and so on. Can you have Soldiers without a high dollar advertising/marketing/publicity plan? I would guess if you provided more salary and benefits, the recruitment would happen. I'm not sure where to draw the line though. Any thoughts?

I am a Staff Sergeant currently serving this great nation on active duty at Fort Bragg and must say that I am very pleased to see that we've been meeting our goals in recruiting. The new ads seem to hit they mark very well, however there are still allot more media sources out there that the Army or our military as a whole is yet to explore, yes the fact that the message is in a video format, which would appeal more to the youths of today but the fact that these kinds of videos have been thrown out there so much and they've now become in some ways redundant to most of the younger folks out there including myself. That’s why I as an active duty soldier designed and created the new military board game, not to down play the way business was and is currently being conducted, but rather to help broaden and enhance its reaching abilities. This board game is called, " Select Your Service" and it is aimed at getting out the military's message, not only to new recruits but to those harden experiences warriors that we need to retained to guide those that decides to join our ranks. This game covers all five branches of service and allow each branch's Recruiting Command to author the message going out for that period of time by putting out different editions of the playing cards for this game to reflect updates or changes in programs, polices, regulations, opportunities, with some fun need to know military history all in trivia format earning the players points which are then convert into rank for some fun bragging rights among friends and family. This method of advertising will never go old, instead of putting military photos on some outside companies product, why not try something that’s home grown, for military by military, Soldier Hard Soldier Always. To champion the young soldiers of today, you have to win their families, the young wives and college students by putting out something that would serve as a way of bringing people together to collectively learn about our armed forces. A fun filled family board game would always be a better pick over a ten second video, which could easily be compared to all previous videos of its kind.

http://www.mjscreations.com/pages/games/game_a.htm

[SWERVE1]

The Army Strong recruiting campaign is leaps and bounds better than the horrible Army of One, and these commercials are pretty good. My recommendation would be to include more actual footage of Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of actors on a sound stage.

Originally Posted by SWERVE1

The Army Strong recruiting campaign is leaps and bounds better than the horrible Army of One, and these commercials are pretty good. My recommendation would be to include more actual footage of Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of actors on a sound stage.

BLAH BLAH BLAH...DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT. THE ARMY WILL LIE, TWIST AND COVER UP THE TRUTH TO GET YOU ON BOARD.

200+ YEARS WORTH OF TRADITION OF WASTING PEOPLE'S TALENTS AND TIME FOR SOME GO'S EGO AND GLORY.

THE PERCEPTION OUT THEIR IS THAT YOU JOIN THE ARMY IF YOU CAN'T HACK IT ANYWHERE ELSE TO INCLUDE THE OTHER SERVICES.

I BET THE MARINES COULD DO THEIR JOB WITH HALF THE COST AND PEOPLE!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am a Staff Sergeant currently serving this great nation on active duty at Fort Bragg and must say that I am very pleased to see that we've been meeting our goals in recruiting. The new ads seem to hit they mark very well, however there are still allot more media sources out there that the Army or our military as a whole is yet to explore, yes the fact that the message is in a video format, which would appeal more to the youths of today but the fact that these kinds of videos have been thrown out there so much and they've now become in some ways redundant to most of the younger folks out there including myself. That’s why I as an active duty soldier designed and created the new military board game, not to down play the way business was and is currently being conducted, but rather to help broaden and enhance its reaching abilities. This board game is called, " Select Your Service" and it is aimed at getting out the military's message, not only to new recruits but to those harden experiences warriors that we need to retained to guide those that decides to join our ranks. This game covers all five branches of service and allow each branch's Recruiting Command to author the message going out for that period of time by putting out different editions of the playing cards for this game to reflect updates or changes in programs, polices, regulations, opportunities, with some fun need to know military history all in trivia format earning the players points which are then convert into rank for some fun bragging rights among friends and family. This method of advertising will never go old, instead of putting military photos on some outside companies product, why not try something that’s home grown, for military by military, Soldier Hard Soldier Always. To champion the young soldiers of today, you have to win their families, the young wives and college students by putting out something that would serve as a way of bringing people together to collectively learn about our armed forces. A fun filled family board game would always be a better pick over a ten second video, which could easily be compared to all previous videos of its kind.

http://www.mjscreations.com/pages/games/game_a.htm

Oh yeah...meeting goals by recruiting the dregs of society! You'll be sorry later!

Lies All Of It! Don't Believe A Thing The Army Of One Duds Tell You! Join The Usmc If You Really Want To Pull A Trigger And Be A Real Warrior!

The Army sucks...join the Marines if you must!