‘Army Strong’ recruiting campaign starts now
By Gina Cavallaro
Four new Army recruiting ads were launched today through text messaging, Internet search engines and Web sites and on more than 20 cable TV channels. A new page on the Army’s recruiting Web site —goarmy.com/strong — also was launched just after midnight and features the ads and other materials associated with the ad campaign.
Three English-language spots will air beginning at 8 p.m. on the following channels: CW; CMT; Court TV; Discovery; Food; Fuse; G4; Hallmark; HGTV; History; Lifetime; MTV; MTV2; MTVU; Sci-Fi; Soap; Spike; TNT; TVLand; and USA. One 30-second Spanish-language spot will air at the same time on Univision and Telemundo cable TV stations.
The Army’s presence on such search engines as Google and Yahoo will be increased, and the ads also will appear on YouTube. In addition to the “Army strong” recruiting ads, “America’s Army,” the Army’s award-winning online video game, will be taken into the Global Gaming League, an online gaming league and social network that sponsors and covers video game tournaments, the Army said in a news release.
With the new message of a different kind of strength delivered by real soldiers, the hope is to reach the pool of potential recruits that will help the Army meet its 80,000-soldier recruiting mission by the end of fiscal 2007 and beyond.
Print advertisements will begin in January, and the goarmy.com Web site will begin a feature called “Ask a soldier,” where prospects and their families and friends can pose questions and get honest responses from soldiers who are not necessarily recruiters.
“While the U.S. Army met its recruiting goal of 80,000 in 2006, we must continue to make the Army message distinctive and powerful — and then deliver that message in ways that reach eligible recruits and those who care about them,” Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp, commander of U.S. Army Accessions Command said in the Army news release.
“That’s exactly what we are doing with our new media recruiting efforts,” he said. “We’re reaching out to prospects and giving them the information they need where they are and on their terms.”
The “Army strong” campaign was presented a month ago at the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army and replaces the “Army of one” slogan that had been used for recruiting ads since January 2001.
Two of the new ads entitled “Army strong” will air in 30- and 60-second spots and will showcase “powerful images from the lives of U.S. Army soldiers,” the release said.
A 30-second spot entitled “Interview,” is aimed at influencing the parents of potential recruits, using Pfc. Brandon James Talsma at home with his own parents who discuss how they feel.
Talsma, who is assigned to 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan., appears in his Class A uniform next to his father, who is wearing a ball cap with a 1st ID patch. “He’s just a stronger, more driven individual,” Talsma’s mother is quoted as saying while the threesome sits at the kitchen table.
An announcer then says: “If your son or daughter wants to talk about joining the Army, listen. You made them strong; we’ll make them Army strong.” A similar ad in Spanish, entitled “Entrevista,” features a Hispanic family. The ads were developed and produced by McCann Worldgroup, whose two-year $400 million contract is renewable for three one-year contracts at $200 million a year.
The ads were directed by Samuel Bayer with music composed by Mark Isham.
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Topic: "Army of One" Out, Army Strong In (Read 425 times)