After successfully salvaging the first campaign of the Army’s “Be All You Can Be” rebrand, the service’s top marketers are back with new advertisements and new leadership.
The next rounds of advertisements — anchored by three cinematic spots collectively dubbed “First Steps” by Army Enterprise Marketing Office leaders — debuted Monday morning, said the office’s interim director, Ignatios Mavridis. First Steps is the second campaign in the “Be All You Can Be” rebrand, which launched in March.
“It tries to be an authentic portrayal of what it means to be a young soldier,” Mavridis told Army Times. “It’s an up close and personal campaign.”
The marketing chief added that the three new cinematic ads and images launching Monday won’t just be on television — the Army has also secured streaming platform buys and “out of home” advertising, such as billboards and posters. The new ads can be viewed at the bottom of this story.
While the featured cinematic ad is a minute long, Mavridis said all three are available in “30-, 15- and six-second spots.” That will allow them to appear in small slots such as during long YouTube videos or on other social media platforms, he said.
The longest of the new cinematic ads, “First Arrival,” depicts Army recruits as they leave home and arrive at basic training, and the second, “First Patch,” shows family members placing patches on their newly graduated soldiers at the conclusion of training. The third spot, “First Target,” shows a new tank gunner engaging a live fire target for the first time.
Notably, none of the advertisements appear to feature a celebrity, as the first round of “Be All You Can Be” commercials did. Although celebrity endorsements are a common marketing technique, they come with risk, as the Army learned when its on-screen narrator,
