Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
November 11, 2008
Pg. B10
By Stuart Elliott
For the last two years, the Army has presented itself to potential recruits as the way to become “Army strong.” Beginning on Tuesday, Veterans Day, the Army will seek to make its pitch stronger by making the campaign more relevant to the desired audience of Americans ages 17 to 24.
One new feature on a redesigned version of the Army Web site (goarmy.com) called “Straight From Iraq” states, “Now you can find out what it’s really like to be deployed in the Middle East from the men and women stationed there.”
“Soldiers are ready to take your questions,” says a section of the site devoted to a webcast series. The feature represents the first time that visitors can ask questions of soldiers deployed overseas as well as the first time the Iraq war has been referred to so directly and prominently on the Web site.
The goal is to provide those considering the Army — along with parents and others who influence their decisions — with “verifiable information about what being a soldier is really like, what combat is really like,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commanding general of the Army Accessions Command in Fort Monroe, Va., which is overseeing recruitment.
The changes in the “Army strong” campaign place more emphasis on the Internet, event marketing and other methods that connect with young Americans on a closer, more personal level.
To help pay for the new media features, cutbacks are being made in areas like the Army’s sponsorships of professional rodeos.
The changes include an additional theme for the campaign, “Strength like no other,” which will appear along with “Army strong”; a focus on the skills that recruits can learn in the Army, to make a stronger case about how serving can bring personal and career success later in life; and new information about becoming an officer.
“The campaign has been successful conveying the benefits of ‘Army strong,’ the physical, emotional and mental benefits,” said Ed Walters, chief marketing officer for the Army at the Pentagon.
“We wanted to more clearly articulate that,” he added, through efforts like sharing with civilians the video clips of “real soldiers’ stories.”
The “Army strong” campaign is produced by nine agencies, eight of them part of the McCann Worldgroup division of the Interpublic Group of Companies. The Army ad budget from 2006 through 2011 is estimated at $1.35 billion.
The Army has met its recruiting goals for the first two fiscal years during which the “Army strong” campaign has appeared. Critics of the military’s practices contend that bonuses being awarded to recruits as well as less stringent entry standards have also helped meet the goals.
“We love the ‘Army strong’ campaign because it resonates with youth,” General Freakley said, and it “says in a nutshell who our soldiers are, that it is a strength they get by serving.”
“This is a progression, an evolution,” he added, referring to the new phase of the campaign.
In addition to the new content on goarmy.com, there will be new TV commercials, meant to help drive traffic to the Web site. The first ones compare the Army to a company, a team and a school by showing young men and women in settings like an office building, a gym and a campus. The scenes shift into scenes of soldiers performing military tasks like marching and saluting the flag.
In the gym commercial, young athletes are seen working out, then stacking sandbags. “There is a team like no other team in the world,” says the narrator, the actor Gary Sinise, who took over the narration work for the campaign last year from the actor Josh Charles.
“When they raise their flag in victory, you will know what these men and women are fighting for,” Mr. Sinise says, “and you will feel fortunate to be counted among them.”
In the office commercial, young workers in business attire suddenly start climbing walls. “This company is filled with dreamers,” Mr. Sinise says, “but they also have courage, strength and honor, and when they leave this company it will be with a thousand opportunities and the respect of millions.”
The intent is “to show the Army in a way you haven’t thought about it,” said Craig Markus, executive creative director at McCann Erickson Worldwide in New York, one of the McCann Worldgroup agencies working on the campaign.
“Obviously, the buzzword right now is ‘relevance,’” he added, “and we’re trying to talk to people in a way that’s relevant to them at the moment.”
Coincidentally, it turns out the campaign was developed months before the start of the steep economic downturn. The growing unemployment rate could benefit the Army because young men and women may enlist rather than search fruitlessly for work.
“History will tell you that’s true,” Mr. Markus said, “but I’m not going to predict what may happen.”
The other McCann Worldgroup agencies working on the campaign are: Casanova Pendrill, for ads aimed at Hispanics; the IW Group, for ads aimed at Asian-Americans; Momentum, for event marketing and sponsorships; MRM Worldwide, for the Web site, digital marketing and direct marketing; NAS Recruitment, for medical recruiting; Universal McCann, for media planning and buying; and Weber Shandwick, for public relations.
Another agency, Carol H. Williams Advertising, is creating ads aimed at African-American recruits.
Other changes the Army is making include reworking the content of the Virtual Army Experience, a traveling interactive exhibit with games and other displays that is intended for an audience as young as 13. There have been complaints that the exhibit is inappropriate because it makes combat seem to be fun.
“If we show the Army fighting, people say it’s violent,” General Freakley said. “If we don’t, people say it’s not truthful.”
The new content for the exhibit will concentrate on the peaceful purposes the Army can serve, he added, like providing humanitarian aid.
The new elements of the “Army strong” campaign aimed at so-called influencers like parents are scheduled to start in January. Such ads have been part of the campaign since it began in 2006.
November 11, 2008
Pg. B10
By Stuart Elliott
For the last two years, the Army has presented itself to potential recruits as the way to become “Army strong.” Beginning on Tuesday, Veterans Day, the Army will seek to make its pitch stronger by making the campaign more relevant to the desired audience of Americans ages 17 to 24.
One new feature on a redesigned version of the Army Web site (goarmy.com) called “Straight From Iraq” states, “Now you can find out what it’s really like to be deployed in the Middle East from the men and women stationed there.”
“Soldiers are ready to take your questions,” says a section of the site devoted to a webcast series. The feature represents the first time that visitors can ask questions of soldiers deployed overseas as well as the first time the Iraq war has been referred to so directly and prominently on the Web site.
The goal is to provide those considering the Army — along with parents and others who influence their decisions — with “verifiable information about what being a soldier is really like, what combat is really like,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commanding general of the Army Accessions Command in Fort Monroe, Va., which is overseeing recruitment.
The changes in the “Army strong” campaign place more emphasis on the Internet, event marketing and other methods that connect with young Americans on a closer, more personal level.
To help pay for the new media features, cutbacks are being made in areas like the Army’s sponsorships of professional rodeos.
The changes include an additional theme for the campaign, “Strength like no other,” which will appear along with “Army strong”; a focus on the skills that recruits can learn in the Army, to make a stronger case about how serving can bring personal and career success later in life; and new information about becoming an officer.
“The campaign has been successful conveying the benefits of ‘Army strong,’ the physical, emotional and mental benefits,” said Ed Walters, chief marketing officer for the Army at the Pentagon.
“We wanted to more clearly articulate that,” he added, through efforts like sharing with civilians the video clips of “real soldiers’ stories.”
The “Army strong” campaign is produced by nine agencies, eight of them part of the McCann Worldgroup division of the Interpublic Group of Companies. The Army ad budget from 2006 through 2011 is estimated at $1.35 billion.
The Army has met its recruiting goals for the first two fiscal years during which the “Army strong” campaign has appeared. Critics of the military’s practices contend that bonuses being awarded to recruits as well as less stringent entry standards have also helped meet the goals.
“We love the ‘Army strong’ campaign because it resonates with youth,” General Freakley said, and it “says in a nutshell who our soldiers are, that it is a strength they get by serving.”
“This is a progression, an evolution,” he added, referring to the new phase of the campaign.
In addition to the new content on goarmy.com, there will be new TV commercials, meant to help drive traffic to the Web site. The first ones compare the Army to a company, a team and a school by showing young men and women in settings like an office building, a gym and a campus. The scenes shift into scenes of soldiers performing military tasks like marching and saluting the flag.
In the gym commercial, young athletes are seen working out, then stacking sandbags. “There is a team like no other team in the world,” says the narrator, the actor Gary Sinise, who took over the narration work for the campaign last year from the actor Josh Charles.
“When they raise their flag in victory, you will know what these men and women are fighting for,” Mr. Sinise says, “and you will feel fortunate to be counted among them.”
In the office commercial, young workers in business attire suddenly start climbing walls. “This company is filled with dreamers,” Mr. Sinise says, “but they also have courage, strength and honor, and when they leave this company it will be with a thousand opportunities and the respect of millions.”
The intent is “to show the Army in a way you haven’t thought about it,” said Craig Markus, executive creative director at McCann Erickson Worldwide in New York, one of the McCann Worldgroup agencies working on the campaign.
“Obviously, the buzzword right now is ‘relevance,’” he added, “and we’re trying to talk to people in a way that’s relevant to them at the moment.”
Coincidentally, it turns out the campaign was developed months before the start of the steep economic downturn. The growing unemployment rate could benefit the Army because young men and women may enlist rather than search fruitlessly for work.
“History will tell you that’s true,” Mr. Markus said, “but I’m not going to predict what may happen.”
The other McCann Worldgroup agencies working on the campaign are: Casanova Pendrill, for ads aimed at Hispanics; the IW Group, for ads aimed at Asian-Americans; Momentum, for event marketing and sponsorships; MRM Worldwide, for the Web site, digital marketing and direct marketing; NAS Recruitment, for medical recruiting; Universal McCann, for media planning and buying; and Weber Shandwick, for public relations.
Another agency, Carol H. Williams Advertising, is creating ads aimed at African-American recruits.
Other changes the Army is making include reworking the content of the Virtual Army Experience, a traveling interactive exhibit with games and other displays that is intended for an audience as young as 13. There have been complaints that the exhibit is inappropriate because it makes combat seem to be fun.
“If we show the Army fighting, people say it’s violent,” General Freakley said. “If we don’t, people say it’s not truthful.”
The new content for the exhibit will concentrate on the peaceful purposes the Army can serve, he added, like providing humanitarian aid.
The new elements of the “Army strong” campaign aimed at so-called influencers like parents are scheduled to start in January. Such ads have been part of the campaign since it began in 2006.