The Challenge
Our biggest brand challenge was belief: youth think they already know the Army, and what they know they don’t like. They see it as a place that does not care about them and will only make it harder to achieve their goals. We needed to demonstrate the brand’s offer in a way that felt authentic, relatable, and answered Gen Z’s real needs.
The Solution
So we stopped trying to “sell” or “convince,” and opted instead for “dramatic truth-telling.” We opened up an Army that had been closed off to Gen Z for their entire lives, putting its people, culture, and methods for maximizing human potential on full display. The Be All You Can Be campaign launched in March 2023, revealing what the Army can do for young people looking to grow. The campaign featured real soldiers in real-life training and job positions. Each story demonstrated how the Army builds up its soldiers (beyond the expected physical strength), resulting in the personal growth, confidence, discipline, and mental strength they need to achieve their goals. The stories pointed to an atmosphere not of humiliation or brutality, but one rich in community, encouragement, and mentorship. We took a purposeful approach to casting, representing “near peer” soldiers from varied walks of life. Storytelling focused on these soldiers’ “first steps” to make the Army feel more relatable to a generation sitting on the precipice of adulthood. The film approach was “up close and personal”: our audience needed to feel what young soldiers feel in the crucible, emerging from the other side changed for the better. The go-to-market approach was highly integrated, showing up in places that demonstrated the “be all you can be” spirit—like partnerships with college sports teams—and that would build personal trust, like integration with youth culture media properties and discussion forums like Reddit.
