May 6, 2010 from 10a-8p (Eastern Time) the National Guard will host a Money for College Virtual Career Fair. The layout offers a 3D Career Fair Layout that will allow users to browse different booths, talk to recruiters in the lounge and view featured programming.
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.
A recent Gallup study commissioned by the US Navy SEALs revealed that water polo players were twice as likely to successfully complete the SEAL training. Recruiters in turn are turning their focus towards the athlete types that became most prevalent in the study. They have a goal of recruiting 500 new SEALs by 2013, it is around a 5% increase in their recruitment goals.
The Defense Department has met 103% of the recruitment goal for the year and the National Guard has met 104% of their recruitment goal. Due to the response, the $5 billion budget will be cut 11% for next year.
Portada-online.com posted an article talking about the release of a new marketing direction for the Navy that serves as an extension to their current campaign "A Global Force For Good." The campaign is planned to incorporate radio, print, digital and social media along side the video spot.
This is a great example of clear and specific branching of a campaign while remaining in the same vein of the feel and tone that was initially set down. When creating your campaign it is important to identify your primary target followed by your secondary targets. After the ground work is developed you can then branch from you first target and adjust to meet the needs of the secondaries. You might cast a wide general net in your initial actions of the campaign but then narrow by age groups or interest groups to strengthen the approach towards the niche markets.
The Royal Navy is revamping their campaign. This is the new spot, "Heartbeat" in the campaign "Life Without Limits":
They plan to run 9 different 10 second ads starting Jan 4th. The article below notes that the style really calls back to the 1996 ad for Trainspotting.
Check out their new site at: http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/careers/ In addition to using Facebook, they have even created their own iPhone Application which is an "Engineer Officer Challenge."
In order to gauge the response generated by their billboards, the US Army incorporated texting and a contest on their billboards. It seems that this tactic with the billboards did not receive adequate response and was discontinued in May. What are your thoughts on using a "hook" like the chance to win a Wii for military recruitment? Read more at: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_army_wii_040908/
Many times when you are recruiting for more "high risk" careers or positions, half the battle isn't recruiting your applicants, but also recruiting the support of their family and friends. By creating a forum of discussion and information, this can help tear down assumptions made about jobs and locations and help build a bond between your applicants, their families and your recruiters. The more people know and understand about positions, the better they are able to make an informed position and they might be more likely to make that decision if they have the active support of their social group. Do you have particular positions that are hard to hire for that might fall into this kind of category? Have you found out what keeps people from applying?
For more information about Navy for Moms check out these links:
These placements take on a little more light hearted approach and are sending out a call for chefs and psychiatrists for their army. They keep things simple and clean in their design and simple direct candidates to their website. What are your thoughts on this approach?