The Army's Unconventional Big-City Recruiting Strategy Is Paying Off, Officials Say

The Army was on track to meet or exceed its recruiting goals again this year, with help from an unexpected boost of enlistments in the traditionally difficult northeast region, Army officials said Wednesday.

"The whole East Coast, from Richmond north, is really taking off," Army Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, commander of Army Recruiting Command, said at a Pentagon roundtable with defense reporters.

He didn't have specific numbers at the ready, but said Army recruiters had met 100% of their goals in New York City and Boston, where recruiting has normally lagged behind the South and Southwest.

Muth and Dr. Eugene "Casey" Wardynski, assistant Army secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, also said that the surging economy, with unemployment at 3.6%, was not having the usual effect of discouraging enlistments.

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"We want to be great in a great economy," Wardynski said. "We're in a position to do great when America is doing great."

Muth said the Army fell short of its goal in fiscal 2018, when about 70,000 were recruited, compared to the goal of 76,000. Last year, the Army met its goal of 68,000 new recruits. And so far this year, the service is pacing 2,026 recruitments ahead of the same period last year, Muth said.

The plan was to have the end strength of the Army at 485,000 by the end of this fiscal year on Sept. 30, Wardynski said. With recruitments currently going well, the Army already has plans for a late entry pool for recruitments in excess of 485,000, he said.

Both Wardynski and Muth attributed the improving recruiting numbers to a new marketing campaign called "What's Your Warrior," begun last November to highlight opportunities in the Army for today's youth.

They also emphasized a switch to focus more on 22 major cities for recruiting, and a targeting of so-called "Generation Z," those born between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s.

Under Brig. Gen. Alex Fink, chief of Army Enterprise Marketing, the Army marketing team moved from its headquarters near the Pentagon to Chicago last fall to get closer to private-sector expertise. That includes DDB Chicago, which has a $4 billion contract as Army's full-service ad agency until 2028.

Fink said the effort to connect with Generation Z through such innovations as virtual recruiting stations and more creative uses of Instagram and YouTube were already paying off. In December, the Army logged 4.6 million visits to GoArmy.com, Fink said.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

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