Finding A Multi-Million-Dollar Opportunity

Challenge

After examining raw Air National Guard vacancy data, I determined that maintainers — aircraft mechanics — were the No. 1 opening. I pitched agency leadership and the client and got a campaign approved.

Action

As a brand strategist for the account, I helped lead focus groups that resulted in three critical findings:

1. Rural and urban maintainers had different reasons for joining.
2. Assumptions on their demographics and psychographics were wrong.
3. The unifying theme for everyone was that they detested being tied to a desk.

Result

Due to focus group findings and third-party research, the message strategy I created centered on what your hands will do today. Deliverables included:

1. A microsite.
2. A commercial.
3. Digital and print ads.
4. Social media posts.
5. A demand generation email campaign.

The demand generation campaign, which I oversaw, yielded thousands of prospects for Air National Guard recruiting. The email campaign as a whole delivered average open rates 2.1 times recruiting industry norms and click rates 7.5 times industry norms.