Army Strong
November 10, 2006 by Steve Field
A new SecDef, a new Army Web site, and now a new Army advertising campaign.
Lots of news coming out of the Pentagon.
From the Army:
Today, the U.S. Army launched its new Army Strong advertising campaign on network television nationwide. The three television ads powerfully communicate the character of the U.S. Army Soldier and the unique and transformative power of the U.S. Army.
“Army Strong advertising was inspired by the experiences and defining character of the U.S. Army Soldier,” said Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp, commander of U.S. Army Accessions Command. “These ads have been created with the singular aim of helping us succeed in our mission to recruit the next generation of Soldiers and build a highly capable force sufficient to meet the needs of the Nation.”
Cool stuff. The Army has a great new slogan that connects with America’s youth and resonates with the institutional Army (in a way that Army of One never did).
But it gets better:
Additionally, the Army is working to expand its recruiting efforts by using Web-based technology. The Army will reach out to recruits through the Web, text messaging, an increased presence on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo and video partnerships using YouTube.com. Further, the U.S. Army is taking “America’s Army: The Official U.S. Army Game” into the Global Gaming League, an online gaming league and social network that sponsors and covers video game tournaments.
Army recruiting, and their advertising partner McCann Worldgroup, get that in order to reach prospective recruits, they need to communicate the way they do. Increasingly, that involves the adoption of new media technologies.
It is great that they will increase their use of text messaging and further their participation in the social media sphere — including a an upcoming MySpace page (much like the Marines have done).
It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.
