The U.S. Army released its newest recruiting campaign on Veterans Day, and it has come a long way from Be All That You Can Be. The "What's Your Warrior" campaign is aimed squarely at 17-24 year-olds a.k.a. Generation Z. As such, it is a heavily digital campaign with slickly-produced videos highlighting various aspects of Army service. The Army's marketing director calls it "the most complex and most integrated marketing campaign in the history of the United States Army."
The new campaign comes as the Army has struggled to meet its recruiting goals in recent years due to the thriving economy and low unemployment, among other factors. Army Maj. General Bill McClain (ret) tells KTRH that a new approach to recruiting was needed. "The person in charge of this campaign said you've got to go out and meet the young people where they are, and that's where they are is in the digital world," he says.
The look and feel of the campaign aren't the only things that are different...the focus has also changed. "Recent campaigns were directed at the adventure part of joining the Army and joining the military," says McClain. "This campaign shows that there are a lot of different roles that must be fulfilled, even when the country is engaged in combat."
Specifically, the new ads focus less on combat roles and more on career and job skills. "What these ads are saying is if you want to prepare yourself for going into the workforce in some of these other highly-skilled areas, come into the Army and we'll train you and give you experience in those areas...so you've got a skillset to take to a potential employer," says McClain.