Challenge
DDB has been the lead marketing and advertising contractor for the U.S. Army since 2018, leading a cross-discipline team from Omnicom including media, PR, research, data and analytics, multicultural outreach, and creative to service all of the marketing requirements for the $4 billion, 10-year contract. When we started working together, the U.S. Army was facing its biggest recruiting hurdles in 50 years – a reduction in Army recruiters, a shrinking recruitment pool, declining propensity to join, historically low trust in the military, and an unfavorable earned media environment. To address these challenges, we needed to change perceptions and drive positive brand association.

Insight & Strategy
With propensity to serve at an all-time low, we identified a common misconception among our audience groups: that enlisting was synonymous with infantry and combat. We found that an entire generation of Americans, particularly Gen Z, couldn't relate to the U.S. Army, and they sure did not want to join it. But changing these perceptions alone wasn't enough; we needed to fully reinvent the U.S. Army through a multiyear brand transformation.

Solution
Through a fully integrated and multi-campaign approach, we attacked everything from the ugly images in people's heads when they think of the U.S. Army, to the arduous path to commitment. We changed the narrative from the ultimate sacrifice to the ultimate opportunity, revealing the immense diversity of careers in the Army, as well as the benefits and motivations Gen Z is looking for. We changed the systems from siloed databases to integrated intelligence, and with sophisticated audience modeling were able to precisely target, measure, and optimize what moves each prospect toward the decision to join.

After years of research and development, in the spring of 2023, we launched a new 20-year campaign for the Army, “Be All You Can Be,” part of a new enterprise-wide visual and verbal identity that will drive all future U.S. Army communications, both internally and externally – not just marketing. This is the Army’s first enterprise-wide brand campaign since 2006 and the first enterprise-wide brand identity since 2001.