OBJECTIVESINCE 2009 THE ARMY HAD BEEN EXPERIENCING A STEADY DECREASE IN APPLICATION NUMBERS FOR REGULAR ARMY OFFICER ROLES, RESULTING IN REDUCING NUMBERS MOVING ONTO THE OFFICER COMMISSIONING COURSE.
IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE THE DESIRED NUMBERS, THE ARMY WANTED TO GENERATE 3,876 ARMY OFFICER APPLICATIONS DURING 2015-16 RECRUITING YEAR. ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT TO BE A GRADUATE IN ORDER TO BECOME AN ARMY OFFICER, THE ARMY TOOK THE DECISION TO GO AHEAD WITH ITS FIRST OFFICER-SPECIFIC RECRUITMENT DRIVE IN EIGHT YEARS AND TO TARGET IT DIRECTLY AT GRADUATES.
SOLUTION
We ran a series of high-impact events at 20 campuses across the UK. Following these events we knew it was critical to maintain front-of-mind presence. Part of our strategy to do that included press advertising.
PRINT ADVERTISEMENT
More than 65,000 copies of the 2016-2017 edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers directory have been distributed free-of-charge to student job hunters at fifty key universities across the country, making this a clear frontrunner when it came to choice of media.
The Army was striving for meaningful connections, so our approach had been to get away from the guns and the green, and to educate on the role of the modern British Army. In our events we had included a test to see how students would react as a leader of a disaster relief effort. Our ad took this theme on.
Emotive language and imagery was deliberately used as a way to bond with people through shared values, attitudes and behaviours. And the messaging, although short, was as much about the purpose of the Army as it was the sense of purpose it gave its serving officers.
PRINT ADVERTISEMENT
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0071-TT100 ad ARMY 2016.indd 1 11/07/2016 14:59Main advert
MEASUREMENT
5,686 applications by January 2016 (46% above target objective)
