The United States Marine Corps has been defined by their fighting spirit for 243 years. But for today’s youth who are ambivalent about the military, the question is which battles today are worth fighting? As technology and media have changed consumption habits and limited the effects of advertising, the Marines enlisted the help of those voices most prevalent in their lives today—YouTube content creators—to help answer that question.
This unique program developed from a need to reach the youth audience that spends most of their time on YouTube, and share the story of how Marines are trained to overcome any challenge. The Marine Corps created a 3 day version of their legendary boot camp, set at Parris Island, South Carolina, and challenged 4 content creators to make it through the entire 3 days. The moment the creators set foot on the island they were met by their drill instructors and escorted through a grueling schedule of activities that included all of the most feared recruit training challenges: the Confidence Course, the Rappel Tower, the Gas Chamber and the Crucible Hike.
Each creator told their own story of their time on the island and shared the videos with their YouTube followers. The authenticity of their experience – including the reality that not everyone makes it through Marine Corps recruit training, as demonstrated by the fact that one creator quit mid-program – plus the quality of their storytelling led to a phenomenal 159 mm organic impressions within the first month alone, as well as 6.5 mm views across all of the videos.
"Marine Corps Recruit Training is extremely tough and challenging. What better way to get that experience in the faces of hyper-connected young people is through an equally gritty and immersive sneak-peek of how we make Marines--all captured through the personal experience of digital influencers," said LtCol Christian Devine, director of marketing and communication strategy for Marine Corps Recruiting Command.
"In some ways we’re a 20th century brand that needs to bridge with the 21st century mentality of American youth. Yet we may share a common ideal: the search for belonging and higher purpose. That ideal still spans generations, and it's our responsibility to find contemporary ways to continually re-evaluate and connect with young people about military service--particularly as a U.S. Marine. In an era where there is a growing disconnect among the American population and those who have served in uniform, we must employ relevant marketing tactics to bridge that chasm to make the next generation of global difference makers."
“The battles recruits have to fight to earn the title Marine are figurative. They have to defeat adolescence, selfishness, fear, and doubt at Recruit Training,” said Sean McNeeley, account lead on the Marine Corps business at J. Walter Thompson Atlanta. “We wanted a broad audience to see how people they admired and followed on YouTube faced those challenges. Ultimately, they all gained a deeper appreciation of the cause that makes those battles worth fighting.”
Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.
Battles Won Bootcamp required a fairly innovative synergy of roles. This was a project that needed to be effective in the social space and also highly creative — ultimately feeling both “live” and well-produced. So, JWT and the Marines asked the JWT creative, social strategy and content teams to merge in a unique way. Alan Whitley, Executive Creative Director, and Sunni Thompson, Executive Director of Communications Strategy, led a combined team of writers, Social Strategists, Content Strategists, Art Directors, Producers and production crew in the development of a hybrid campaign that would feature popular YouTube personalities experiencing three days of authentic Marine Corps recruit training. Given the sheer volume of tasks this campaign demanded – from traditional production to daily Instagram story reporting – there needed to be careful coordination of the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved. The Marine Corps clients also played a critical role, first by having faith that this could become powerful communication and then by actively managing access to the Parris Island recruit training location, supplying real Drill Instructors nearly round-the-clock and shepherding the activities of a large production within their own structured training environment.
Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?
Battles Won Bootcamp was all about starting conversation with new Marine prospect audiences by partnering with popular influencers on YouTube to introduce the Marines’ “Battles Won” brand message in a way their youth audience followers could relate to. By introducing its message of civic responsibility and the opportunity to win battles for oneself and for the Nation, the intent was to make a whole new group of young men and women start to understand both the difficulty and the rewards that go with becoming a Marine. Our tactic? We invited a diverse set of content creators to experience recruit training first hand, and we asked them to share the story of their experience – down to the sweat and tears – with their audiences. We also asked the Marines to challenge these content creators mentally and physically the way they challenge real recruits. We wanted to generate a feeling of “live” and “in the moment,” and also feature a series of planned executions that reflected the Marine Corps brand strategic platform.
Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?
Simply put, the creative brief asked us to bridge the widening understanding gap between the American military and our Nation’s youth by finding a new way to expand the Marine Corps prospect audience. Budgetary realities mean that Marine Corps media dollars are stretched further and further each year, yet the brand faces the same recruiting mission in terms of volume and quality. That means we constantly look for innovative ways to reach a high-quality, recruitment-age audience, and YouTube was a great fit.
Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?
Multiple insights actually led to Battles Won Bootcamp. The Marine Corps is a civic-oriented brand, but there is still a clear and present journey of awareness, consideration and decision on the part of every new Marine recruit. We were aware that our youth audience was increasingly turning to YouTube not only for entertainment, but also as a primary research tool to help them deeply understand more about their interests. We also knew that most brands looking to use social influencers as ambassadors were only scratching the surface of what could actually be done.
From Communications Strategy Director, Sunni Thompson: “We wanted to turn the idea of using social influencers on its head. Instead of doing some average, product-placement-style sponsorship, we wanted to get the influencers out of their worlds and into ours. We wanted to challenge them to not only attempt Marine Corps recruit training, but to capture the most compelling story possible to share with their audiences. We knew that the extremity of the situation would make amazing YouTube videos.”
Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this campaign? Why was this idea chosen?
From the beginning of this project our agency team and our clients were unified in the desire to build our presence of YouTube, we were simply looking for the right idea. “We made the decision early on to combine creative teams with social and content strategists, which led to amazingly creative ideas built on strategic use of technology and social platforms,” said Thompson. “This particular idea stood out from the pack because it combined two items of real interest to our clients: The story of how Marines are made and the chance to expand our YouTube footprint.” The results suggest we got it right. Within a month, we had more than 159 million organic impressions and counting — which is more than a lot of paid media campaigns. Each of our influencers also had huge engagement — especially Michelle Khare, whose recap video just flew past 3.5 million views! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zak_e_QB4OU&t=22s)
What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development.
From the beginning, we knew that executing this project would be somewhat complex. One of our goals was to net a big volume of content, and to have that content represent multiple perspectives. We planned to approach this as if layers of content would be like ripples moving from a center point. At the center of the action, we had four YouTube influencer/content creators and each of them had a videographer to help them create “near-live” reports from inside the experience. We also had a separate video production team to capture the entirety of the action from an institutional perspective, and then all teams made longform recap videos. To oversee and guide them, we needed a mix of creative brand guidance and social expertise. And with the addition of Planning and Account Service, there was a pretty large team to coordinate.
From Alan Whitley, Executive Creative Director: “Getting creative teams, social content teams and production teams to work in coordination and be productive in a live environment is harder than it seems. Success here had a lot to do with pulling together a diverse group of talent and skills and then defining everyone’s area of responsibility. It’s a lot like the Marines do it, and we were proud of the result.”
What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?
From Alan Whitley, Executive Creative Director: “Battles Won Bootcamp turned out to be something fresh and very different, and it was really fun to watch it all unfold. We planned pretty carefully, because there were a lot of holes we could have stepped into — especially around the talent we used and the way they could have represented the Marine Corps. So, I guess we learned to be even more careful than usual (LOL).”
Where do you see this campaign going in the future?
We and the Marines were so pleased with the level of interaction we got from the influencer/content creators and the huge amount of commentary and engagement we got online, we immediately started thinking about doing another installment of Battles Won Bootcamp. We’ve already been considering other influencers we’d like to see take part — ranging from athletes to other celebrities. That would be some cool audience expansion, for sure.