Military targets NASCAR to boost recruits

CHARLOTTE — Weeks before the U.S. Army began to deploy the resources of a sweeping, $16 million stock car racing sponsorship, the three-star general charged with recruiting more than 73,000 new troops this year already had his first story of googly-eyed NASCAR fandom.

It seems an Army colonel was on his way to a meeting on Capitol Hill last month when a civilian security guard noticed his green uniform and stopped him with a pressing question. Was it true that the Army was going to sponsor a Winston Cup car driven by Jerry Nadeau this year?

"Clear out of the blue the guy sees the uniform and connects us with NASCAR, and we're not even on the track yet," said Gen. Dennis Cavin, commanding general of the Army's recruiting command. "He's a NASCAR fan and he's excited we're going to be there. That's pretty phenomenal."

And there it is — The Gospel, as authored by NASCAR, read from the bully pulpit of a defense industry that plans to use the sport in much the same way as long-standing sponsors like Kellogg and Miller Lite and newer converts such as Home Depot and Pfizer.

The Army will use NASCAR to sell, storming the sport with an integrated marketing campaign designed to turn the heads of its target market, 17- to 24-year-old males, most of whom watch sports and many of whom follow NASCAR.

Army brass believes it can generate 80,000 recruiting leads from the program this year. It expects to turn about 1,200 of them into soldiers, a better rate of return than the Army gets from most of its pitches.

NASCAR opens its season in Daytona Beach, Fla., this week with five branches of the U.S. armed forces — Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and National Guard — as team sponsors. The Army's presence will include a league sponsorship, a touring interactive area and a blitz of TV support.

Together, the armed forces will spend about $28 million in the sport this year. All have similar goals: raising awareness, generating recruiting leads and retaining those already in uniform.

The resources allocated to achieve those goals are substantial. The service branches will spend about $600 million on advertising this year, with much of it paying for time during network sporting events and other programming that draws young male viewers.

"It used to be that we'd have PSAs running at 2 o'clock in the morning and that was it," said Brig. Gen. Edward A. Rice, the commander of Air Force recruiting services, which ran its first paid ad campaign in 2000. "Times have changed. We have a smaller footprint of military bases and fewer and fewer people who have associations with the military as our military continues to shrink. We have to work harder to get the word out."

With 73,600 pairs of boots to fill, the Army casts the widest net and must work the hardest. Thus, the last of the armed services to try NASCAR will make its debut this year with a presence that will dwarf the rest.

The Army logo will adorn the hood of car No. 01 on the Winston Cup circuit, a number chosen to tie in to the "Army of One" theme from its ads. It will buy in-car cameras to make sure the car gets prime TV exposure. It also will buy commercial time during Winston Cup broadcasts, flashing a 1-800 number for those who might want to know more about signing up.

Army recruiters will be trackside throughout the NASCAR season, setting up a 75-by-100-foot interactive area that will include a short video, race car simulators and games, and a pit stop challenge, all meant to help generate recruiting leads.

They also will use show cars and simulators to gain access to high schools and trade programs. If you think getting into a high school's hallways is as easy as placing a phone call to a guidance counselor, you're wrong. Schools want to know what recruiters plan to bring besides a brochure, a handshake and a No. 2 pencil. And students like to see more than a uniform.

"Recruiting is going well now, but it's hard work," said Col. Thomas Nickerson, director of strategic outreach for the Army. "We must constantly evaluate what we're doing and find innovative ways of reaching young Americans. You have to constantly look at what kids' interests are and then develop a plan to tap into it.

"That's what we're doing here. This is a business plan meant to enhance the Army's recruiting efforts."

While the Army has the broadest, deepest and most expensive program, each of the services will spend at least $1.5 million and all will dispatch show cars to make stops at schools from Bangor to Bakersfield.

The Air Force will put about $2.25 million into an associate sponsorship with a Winston Cup team. That will buy placement on the rear corners of a car driven by popular veteran Ricky Rudd throughout the 38-week season, along with a primary position for three races.

The Marine Corps will spend about $2.25 million as primary sponsor of a team in the Busch Series, where it has found fertile recruiting ground since 1999.

The Navy will spend about $1.5 million as a primary sponsor of a Roush Racing team in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck series. Its sponsorship differs slightly from the others in that it is funded mostly from a retention budget, rather than a recruiting budget.

The Army National Guard will sponsor a Winston Cup entry, putting its colors on a car driven by Todd Bodine. The Guard would not discuss its spending, but industry insiders estimated it was one of the lower team deals in Winston Cup, likely worth $5 million to $6 million for the season.

"To me, the fact that they're all involved now right there alongside the Fortune 500 companies just shows that radically different organizations can use this common marketing platform to achieve similar results," said Geoff Smith, president of Roush Racing. "Gain (detergent) is here to generate new business. Likewise, the Navy is here to generate business. It just so happens that their new business is people."

The four active branches together must sign up about 200,000 recruits this year, more hires than any U.S. industry.

Together, the active and reserve branches of the armed forces will spend $1.4 billion on recruiting, advertising and examining this year, according to Defense Department budgets.

The Army has the most hires to make, so it gets the largest ad budget, projected to be about $181.5 million. The Navy's ad appropriation is $109.8 million. The Air Force gets $90.4 million; the Marines get $46.5 million; and the Army National Guard gets $48.9 million.

The budgets haven't always been this big. Army ad spending got as high as $80 million in the mid-1980s but declined precipitously during the military downsizing that followed the Gulf War. A shrinking military meant less need for recruiting.

"In 1995, we woke up and realized that, gee whiz, for every guy that leaves the Army we have to recruit another one," Cavin said. "And what we didn't really come to grips with until 1999 was that we'd taken a lot of money out of our advertising. We hadn't invested in it. We hadn't refreshed it in the right manner. We had a problem."

That problem reached crisis levels in 1999, when all active branches except the Marines missed their recruiting goals. The Army fell short by 17,000 — 7,000 active, 10,000 in the reserves.

"That shook the shingles," said Cavin, whose recruiting roots go back to the day the Army brass heard the first bars of the "Be All That You Can Be" jingle from a Madison Avenue ad firm. "To man the force, we had to change the message."

In researching more than 11,000 potential recruits, the Army found that its targets understood they could get college tuition or a $20,000 bonus for signing up, but they didn't know what it meant to be a soldier.

So the Army ditched the second-most-recognizable jingle in U.S. advertising history in favor of the punchier "Army of One." It also started trolling for young adults in their own habitat: the Internet.

In October 2000, the Army had four recruiters answering e-mails and manning one lightly trafficked chat room. Today, it has 40 recruiters manning live chats five days a week. The chat rooms provide the highest conversion rate of any recruiting venue, by far.

Similarly, the armed services have gotten above-average conversion rates with their show car programs. The Marines generated 3,000 qualified leads from 160 driver and show car appearances last year.

"Our recruiters spend all day cold- calling," said Maj. Dave Griesmer, public affairs officer for the Marine Corps recruiting command. "So if they get a qualified lead from a show car appearance or a NASCAR event, that's gold."

The Marines will watch closely this year to make sure the gold hasn't lost any of its luster. One of their slogans is "First In," and they were the first of the armed forces to use NASCAR in recruiting. If it has lost some of its impact, it might be time to blaze another trail.

"We were pioneers with this program, but some might say it's saturated now," Griesmer said. "You've got all the armed forces here and it's harder to make your program stand out. If we see that we're not getting results, we'll look to do something else."

Bill King writes for the Sports Business Journal, a sister publication based in Charlotte.

That problem reached crisis levels in 1999, when all active branches except the Marines missed their recruiting goals. The Army fell short by 17,000 — 7,000 active, 10,000 in the reserves.

I am sure the cut in advertising money hurt, but it was the Commnader in Chief who hurt recruiting more than anything. Today, reenlistment rates are pretty damn high. I'll let you figure it out.

The Army logo will adorn the hood of car No. 01 on the Winston Cup circuit, a number chosen to tie in to the "Army of One" theme from its ads.

As a NASCAR fan and a former soldier, it sickens me to learn that I'll have to put up with the Shinseki-esqe "Army of One" nonsense each Sunday.

...the U.S. Army began to deploy the resources of a sweeping, $16 million stock car racing sponsorship.. [i]t expects to turn about 1,200 of them into soldiers, a better rate of return than the Army gets from most of its pitches.

$13,333/recruit is a good return on investment? I love NASCAR, but surely they could find a better way to encourage recruitment with our tax dollars. Maybe put a little of that money toward getting recruits off food stamps?

Great move by the Army and they picked a great guy in Jerry Nadeau as their representative.

I hope you're correct about Nadeau. Army recruiting bump!

Are you in the NASCAR Fantasy League this year?

Yes, I sure am. I've signed up as Gant33Lives. Unfortunately, I'm pretty far down in the standings after Daytona, but I'm still confident about this season overall.

I hope you're correct about Nadeau.

As far as I can tell, he is. Jerry is yet to piss me off yet unlike some other young drivers (Busch, Harvick, etc.)

The first car I owned was a 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury. King Richard Petty drove one just like it. Only difference, his was blue and mine was red. The reasons I bought it? #1 - Richard Petty. #2 - Richard Petty. With STP as one of the sponsors, what type of oil did I use? STP of course. Tell me young Americans will not be influenced.

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