As it competes for young Americans’ attention in a tight labor market, the Army needs a recruiting approach that is “more targeted” and “agile,” according to a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.

“Gone are the days of expecting prospects to simply walk into recruiting offices across the United States and meeting U.S. Army manning goals,” Maj. Ryan Crayne writes. “Advertising alone will not persuade; what is needed is a concerted effort to meet young people on their own terms while authentically presenting the wide array of possibilities that Army service entails.”

In “Army Marketing: From Debut to Remix,” Crayne outlines the momentum created by the Army Enterprise Marketing Office and underscores the need for continued recruiting advancements.

Before the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, military marketing largely relied on commercial research that “maps consumer behaviors to demographics and zip codes,” Crayne writes. “While useful in retail contexts, this method fell short for the Army.”

In response, the Army Enterprise Marketing Office and an industry partner rooted their campaigns in “seeking to understand what young people want in their lives, what motivates them to serve, and what barriers keep them from considering the Army,” he writes.

Crayne is an AUSA scholar and an Army marketing and behavioral economics officer who currently serves as the innovation lead of the Army Enterprise Marketing Office. He is a fellow with the LTG (Ret.) James M. Dubik Writing Fellows Program and has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.

Crayne’s paper is part of AUSA’s Harding Papers series, which was launched in conjunction with the Army’s Harding Project, an initiative that aims to revitalize scholarship and writing across the force.

With the Army’s marketing and recruiting “at an inflection point,” it is time to build upon the foundation the Army Enterprise Marketing Office built, Crayne writes.

“The future is in the Army Marketing Cloud,” which “aims to be the connective tissue between communications and contracts and to track every lead from first touch through appointment, enlistment and shipping to basic training,” he writes. “Conversion rates of leads have more than doubled since" the cloud was implemented, “days from lead to contract have dropped from over 150 to closer to 60 and the cost of marketing and recruitment efforts per contract has been cut by two-thirds since 2020.”

To recruit effectively, the Army needs an “authentic” and adaptable message that goes beyond marketing alone, Crayne writes.

“The Army cannot afford to simply hope or assume that marketing alone will fill its ranks,” he writes. “The message has to be authentic, the beat has to keep moving, and the grind never stops. With the remix of Be All You Can Be, the Army Marketing Cloud, the growth of the marketing officer program, and a focus on providing tools to the recruiter,” the Army Enterprise Marketing Office “serves as an indispensable pillar in the force generation apparatus of our Army.”

Read the paper here.