Case Study - “Forged by the Sea” - How US Navy ran its most successful Digital Marketing campaigns to recruit sailors
CASE STUDY
“Forged by the Sea” - How US Navy ran its most successful Digital Marketing campaigns to recruit sailors (Plus a refreshing gamification campaign using Virtual Assistants)
ALSO –
Q&A with Ryan Blum, executive creative director at VMLY&R, who led creative strategy in working with media partners and US Navy
When one thinks about organizations that run some of the most successful Digital Marketing campaigns, a government agency might not immediately come to mind. However, taking an innovative, experimental approach that combined deep understanding of the target audience with creative courage, US Navy has created a successful campaign blueprint that can be used by other government agencies, and possibly, other corporate organizations as well
Challenge
In 2018 Navy had a recruitment challenge where Navy couldn’t hire meaningfully from their mass media efforts (TV, Radio ads). There were multiple reasons contributing to the challenges- from safety perceptions to higher fitness standards.
Goal
They needed 50k sailors in coming years with an increased focus on some of the super specialized, and intellectually demanding jobs such as cryptologists and special warfare operators. In 2017, US Navy was spending 70% of the budget on TV ads including super bowl ads with little success. Given how few parallels exist with any other industry, this was a tough nut to crack and needed some original thinking
Methodology
1. Understanding the audience
Navy worked with Y&R Memphis to conduct conducted extensive market research with the target audience, mostly Centennials, roughly 17 -21 years old. It quickly became clear that the audience is looking for a meaningful adventure, and being a part mission driven culture
Ken Dowling, head of the Navy Partnership and managing director at Y&R Memphis. “What we found was that there was nearly 100-percent awareness of the Navy, but zero-percent understanding of the Navy’s full mission, reach, and influence”
Key findings
· Don’t paint all prospects with the same brush. Identify Personas
Put simply - The people interested in Navy were also interested in other things such as cooking, music, arts etc. No one really realized that navy has several career paths such as doctor, engineer, cook etc.
Based on extensive conversations there were 3 distinct personas of the prospects that came thru
a. Meaningful adventure seekers
b. Innovation seekers
c. Traditionalist” that wanted to continue the family transition of servicing the nation
· Meet your users where they are, not where you want them to be
It became clear that most of the target audience was not watching Superbowl ads. There was an immediate need to meet their future sailors at a place of their choice, thereby resulting in the idea of digital acquisition campaign with a message that was relevant to their interest. From the study, the primary channels of choice were YouTube and Social media platforms
2. Masterful job of Insights, Positioning, Messaging
· Creating creatives by persona
Given that YouTube(YT) will have major role as channel, the campaign managers used YT audience insights tool that offers a way to determine what lifestyle (music versus cooking versus online gaming) would be relevant to the personas that were identified above.
Around 60 creatives were developed –short videos formats of 6 sec and 15 second. They were short, high impact and focused on specific areas to stay relevant to the audience example- cooking, martial arts, bodybuilding, and rock climbing. Doing that allowed them to get avoid the “interruption mindset,” in which all ads are perceived as unwanted interruption or distraction
Ryan Blum, executive creative director at VMLY&R says "We wanted to stop being an interruption and create content that teens crave. They won’t engage with content they don’t find relevant and interesting”
The showed the relevant ads upfront. Because they were 6 seconds, users didn’t lose interest.
Related note - I am attaching a framework below with some creative considerations I have found to be useful.
3. Orchestrating the outreach based on insights
· Digital platforms
As established by multiple proof points, YT and other digital channels were the appropriate medium to build the outreach. The ad spend was flipped and 70% of budget was spent on digital ads instead of TV ads.
· Influencer Marketing to drive authenticity and context
Given the caliber of service-members they are seeking, they leveraged content creators such as Kevin Lieber, who is an impressive TED speaker and has 4.3 million+ subscribers on his YouTube channel VSauce focusing on science and education. The reason is simple - the viewers of the channel are the exact prospects needed to fill the advanced critical thinking jobs. These influencers were given unprecedented access to Navy ships to show their viewers how a sailor can pursue a range of professions: from nuclear propulsion to cybersecurity technicians.
Ryan Blum, executive creative director at VMLY&R says
"We wanted to partner with those who have high engagement amongst teens interested in math and science. Then we collaborated to come up with content that provided an inside look at careers in the Navy in a way that would resonate with their audiences. It’s all about authenticity and context."
4. Call to Action/Success Metrics
The success metric was simple – Number of qualified leads for potential sailors. Destination was a single Landing page had a Lead generation form to capture name and information and a phone number. The information was further screened to narrow the list to qualified applicants
Results – Reported by Google
The campaign had blockbuster results. People who saw the ads two or more times were 16% more likely to consider joining the U.S. Navy, and users who saw the ads at least twice were 19% more likely to search for U.S. Navy keywords on YouTube within three days.
Most importantly- Navy has been hitting its aggressive goal of recruiting roughly 50k sailors from this campaign over the last few years
What’s next:
· eSports
Based on the influencer Marketing success, US Navy plans to spend ad budget on esports with platforms like Twitch. They already have sailors on the esports team are shown playing video games like “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” while answering viewers' questions about the Navy in real time. Initial results are promising and nicely building upon the terrific success they have had with their digital campaigns
· Virtual Assistants
Centennials are the largest consumers of Virtual Assistants (VA) such as Google Home. The media agency, VMLYR have re-created the experience that taps into VA. Using Google Assistant, they built a voice activated game in which users played as NASA Mission Control with the goal of getting Neil Armstrong and crew safely to the moon and back, giving users the power to command the mission using their voice.
Using AI, their voices advance the mission, and at the end, depending on their choices, the users were matched with the Navy careers (Fighter Pilot, Nuclear operations etc.) that fit them the best. Check this out
Initial results –
27% of users spent more than 15 minutes playing ; 45% higher engagement on the landing page
Conclusion
There is a lot to learn from the success of this campaign that balanced Strategic thinking with execution excellence. All of this while keeping things simple, having a clear success metric, and fostering collaboration among various large, and different departments working together – VMLYR, Google, US Navy and others.
During my research, I was very impressed with the way everyone collaborated with each other. That alone could be a case study in cross-functional influencing and alignment, but that would be for a different day 😊
Q&A with Ryan - Synopsis
Ryan is an executive creative director with VMLYR. His works can be found here.
He spoke about how some of the ideas/concepts have crossover power between industries. He talked about some of the synergies between his current clients that include US Navy, Amtrak, Chuck E. Cheese
1. How did you go about gathering insights?
Ryan: We conducted extensive online focus groups and interviews with sailors on what motivates them and tying it back to the message. Subsequently, we pressure tested and iterated on the message with the media partners. What emerged was interesting:
Centennials are different in a couple of ways. They want to change the world, not just talk about it. Also, they want to work in an environment that makes them a better person, a better version of themselves. The time in navy does exactly that. That is how the tagline of “forged by the sea” came from.
Also, they were cord cutters that didn’t watch TV. Running TV ads to recruit teenagers didn’t make sense. We had to meet them at a place of their choice which was YouTube and other social digital platforms.
2. Can you talk about the non-interruption mindset you have alluded to a few times?
Ryan: Centennials have a short attention span to judge if the content is interesting, and also they have a pretty good BS filter. This plays out in my own family. When we go out to restaurants with our daughter, and she is watching someone on her phone, she puts her phone down now and then because Presumably, the non-skippable ads are not interesting. If you must interrupt with ads, it better be entertaining. That is part of the reason we thought about influencer Marketing
3. How did you zero in on the Influencers?
Ryan: We took to YouTube content creators that we thought would resonate with the centennial audiences, and turned their YT channels into recruitment ground for Navy. VSauce is an example that has millions of followers that makes learning fun. Navy provided these content producers free rein to experience the navy culture and explain in their own words – unfiltered and authentic. It’s the authenticity and fair presentation that makes all the difference - tell the good and bad in a compelling manner.
4. Tell me about some of the channel tactics
Ryan: US Navy Homepage was the destination. The other digital channels such as paid search and organic were activated. The landing pages were Mobile first that helped generate a strong conversion. The organic content distribution happened thru YouTube, Influencer’s social media and US Navy’s social media. To their credit, US Navy approach this partnership with a very collaborative and mutual learning mindset, and made all the difference
5. Why not use multiple landing pages ?
Ryan: Simplicity was the key here. After some thought was put into the idea, multiple landing pages weren’t worth the effort given the data and technology needs, and the fact that the benefits wouldn’t outrun the effort. The more important aspect was to build a mobile-first website because 60-70% of traffic came from mobile. We did a good job with the mobile part
6. How do you get feedback on the messaging?
Ryan: We have a strong social listening practice, and we listen closely to every feedback we get. As a result, we are creating content for every job in navy. We have close to 100 videos already. Examples include –
“How is life in Navy, How do I get paid in Navy, Can a mom be in the Navy, Can I have kids while in Navy etc.” The content includes short form videos of 6-15 seconds, as well as long form documentary such as “face of the fleet”. Ryan, Is there a page where the readers can find the links for these
7. What comes next?
Ryan: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, we used Google Assistant to gamify the mission and turn it into an adventure through careers in the Navy. Many people don’t know that Neil Armstrong was a Navy sailor before he became an astronaut.
But how do you tell that story to a generation who wasn’t even alive when it happened? We have created a fast paced interactive game with Google Virtual Assistant to get Neil Armstrong to the moon and back. Given the answers during the journey, AI is used to infer what career might be best for them and point them to their ideal career path within Navy, with the destination still being the US Navy homepage
https://www.ryanblum.com/new-project-3
Sources
1. PR Week Article – US Navy goes all in on influencer Marketing with YouTube campaign
2. Campaign Live article- Influencer Marketing with YouTube campaign
3. NPR Article – Navy Ad Campaign hopes to attract new generation of Young, Tech-Savvy Recruits
4. Think with Google: 3 lesson from US Navy’s digital video recruitment campaign
5. Beet.Tv Interview with Matt Boren Seeking Centennial recruits
6. Tech Crunch Article- Tapping YouTube creators
7. Future recruiting - Esports recuiting strategy
8. Adweek Article – Forged by the sea campaign