You too can do something extraordinary. New Zealand Police

Government - U.S. Navy Recruitment Ads

via: http://www.adsoftheworld.com/ , http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/us_navy_surgeon

POLICE RECRUITMENT - NZ Police Recruitment Video Campaign

MILITARY - Republic of Singapore Air Force Video

WEBSITE - US National Guard "Moments of Pride"

The US National Guard recently created a website that pulls information from individuals' Facebook pages and combines it with their recruitment video. It is a great step toward making candidates feel that they are already part of the team while giving them a glimpse of the job.

Experience it at: http://www.nationalguard.com/momentsofpride

Articles via:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/army-guard-launches-new-moments-campaign,1243568.shtml
http://oklahoma.watchdog.org/601/army-national-guard-utilizing-social-media-in-recruitment-efforts/

VIDEO - Marine Corps Commercials

MILITARY - Army Experience Center

The Experience Center has been around for a while but this is a great video that covers what it offers. Thought I would share it:

NEWS - Air Force Super Bowl Ad & The White Stripes Music

The US Air Force ad is after the dog food ad, at :10.


Recently the National Post posted an article about the White Stripes claiming the US Air Force used a likeness to their song "Fell in Love with a Girl" for an ad that was to run during the Super Bowl. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2010/02/09/white-stripes-upset-over-us-air-force-reserve-ad.aspx

The National Post then posted an article about The White Stripes controversy with the US Air Force and the music composer's apology for any likeness to their song.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2010/02/10/wasn-t-my-intention-air-force-song-composer-apologizes-for-similarity-to-the-white-stripes.aspx

AdFreak also made a post about the situation:
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2010/02/air-force-defends-but-pulls-super-bowl-ad.html

This is a comparison of the music:

ADVERTISING - Clunker lesson

As soon as I heard the Cash for Clunkers program was put on hold, advertising cost immediately came to mind. Not only did the government run out of money for clunkers, but car dealers invested in advertising on TV, radio, newspaper and direct mailers through November. Not to mention the upset customers who are now unable to participate in the promotion. Talk about advertising dollars up in smoke. This is an interesting article about the discontinued Cash for Clunkers program: Hot Air - Cash for Clunkers.

GOVERNMENT - UPDATE Swedish Armed Forces

Here is an update from an earlier post last year about the Swedish Armed Forces Recruitment Site. They made an update to the test, explaining each section with more detail on how to complete the tasks as well as the importance each skill will bring to different branches of the military.

NON-TRADITIONAL: Disturbing Billboard Bleeds When It Rains

If drivers in Papakura, New Zealand weren't getting the message before, they are now. According to Gizmodo, since the billboards have gone up, not one fatal accident in the area has occurred. Gizmodo: Disturbing Billboard Bleeds When It Rains

NON-TRADITIONAL - Air Force, Xbox LIVE hook up to feature recruiting message

Back in November of 2008 the Air Force helped sponsor a series of shorts focusing on Horror meets Comedy on Xbox LIVE in exchange for banner ads, video downloads and theme arrangements for users to download. I am still waiting for the PlayStation 3 HOME to try and take advantage of their system to start holding virtual job fairs. Unfortunately that price range is around half a million at this time... Maybe it will take the action of a job board teaming up with them to bring the cost down and turn it into something that could be feasible for lower cost recruitment. (At least lower than half a mil.)

What are your thoughts on advertising in game/virtual environments?

Have you tried it before?

http://www.rs.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123122790

GOVERNMENT - CIA Turns to Mainstream Media for Recruiting

Spotted something from the AdAge twitter feed about the CIA's recruitment methods.

Evidently they are working with radio right now, you might remember some of the ads that ran on the Discovery Channel, and it looks like their website now includes past print ads, a top 10 reasons to work for the CIA list, and many other items of interest.

With something like the CIA I would expect something a bit more involving and maybe something that makes the candidates take some action. What about working with geocaching groups? Grabbing people that seem to like exploring, adventuring and have some kind of know how when it comes to something a little nontraditional and working on problem solving. It would be great to see a campaign that would utilize either regular GPS units or even Google's new tool for GPS tracking. It could be a great fit with the college crowd and could probably generate a fair amount of buzz. Thoughts?

http://adage.com/article?article_id=135476

https://www.cia.gov/careers/index.html

http://www.geocaching.com/

VIDEO - Various International Military Recruitment Videos

Keeping it light for a Friday. Enjoy the videos!

Ukrainian Military Commercial



Russian Military Commercial





Japanese Military Commercial







Australian Military Commercial



Royal Marines Commercial





Korps Mariniers Commercial





Czech Military Recruitment



Slovak Military Recruitment

GOVERNMENT - Royal Navy "Get the Message"

http://getthemessage.net/

I was browsing around and came across a post about the Royal Navy's "Get the Message."

How does it work? Users go to the site and pick a method of delivery for the message and then type in the message and email out to either a group of people or just one person.

The only thing I worry about is how passive the placement is unless they follow it up with more active recruitment emails at a later date. The video is nice and flashy and that may be enough to hook the curious about checking our more information.

What are your thoughts on the piece?

via: makethelogobigger.blogspot.com

GOVERNMENT - MNPD & U.S. Army Reserve Sign Partnership Agreement

One of our salesmen at the company passed this along to me the other day.

Evidently the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department teamed up with the U.S. Army Reserve when it comes to recruiting officers. The police department will also be teaming up with the military in career fairs and recruiting seminars. Additional police departments in similar arrangements include Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Knoxville, New York City, Memphis, California Highway Patrol and Ft. Lauderdale.

http://www.police.nashville.gov/news/news/2008/1209_Metro_Army_Partnership.htm

VIDEO: Colbert: Discrimination More Difficult

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

HR - Economic stimulus package targets HR issues

This is a nice article reviewing the effects that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1) would have.

It covers employment eligibility, health insurance, health care IT, unemployment benefits and worker training.

http://www.thehrspecialist.com/hrs_articles/homepage_featured/26034/Economic_stimulus_package_targets_HR_issues.hr

GOVERNMENT - Guard Won’t Hold Recruits to Contracts if Bonuses Aren’t Authorized

Pic via: hotair.com An Army recruiter had sent them a copy of what they had one of their recruits sign after he was promised a 25k bonus in his contract.

While hunting around for new army recruitment news I came across this through Google.

The Fiscal 2008 National Defense Authorization Act has not been passed by Congress yet and this Act includes funding for the bonuses National Guard recruits were to receive. Changes must be made in regard to provisions dealing with Iraq before Bush will sign the bill. More details in regard to the bill can be found at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22420862/

Army Secretary Pete Geren noted that if the bill is not passed and National Guard recruits do not receive the money promised, then they will no longer have to honor their contract.

More details towards recruiting reactions and related material can be found here:

http://www.militaryconnection.com/news/january-2008/guard-contracts-bonuses.html

GOVERNMENT - Burnett Pays U.S. Army $15.5 Mil. to Settle Lawsuit

It seems there was a mistake made when it came to billing the US ARMY for work done on their website between the agency and through whom the website was developed. Evidently the over-billing error was brought to the Army's attention but no action was ever taken on the error until now. 12.1 million will be returned in cash while 3.4 million will be credited to the account for work that was never billed for.

The agency was sued for overcharging for the web development and filing false claims.

See more details at AdWeek.com.

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3iaea682bebeefcaa6ab190e72fcbd5964