After snagging 5 Strategies Awards at the start of the season, the recruitment campaign for the French Army designed by our agency Insign has just been honored with 3 Effie Awards in the Public Communication category, the Activation Data category (the only campaign awarded in this category this year), and a special prize for optimizing strategy and performance.
Even as the current "sengager.fr" campaigns are often cited as benchmarks in the field of recruitment marketing or government communication, the Effie Awards (which recognize objectively measured and proven marketing effectiveness) are particularly significant honors.
Here are some pillars on which the French Army's recruitment marketing campaign has built its success, allowing it to almost triple its performance.
Not just one insight, but a multitude of insights
Patriotism, vocation, desire for self-improvement, eagerness to be helpful, yearning to experience something extraordinary, interest in the uniform, technologies, equipment, a need for recognition, discipline, and clarity, etc. We've heard as many reasons to join the French Army as there are young recruits we've met. Summarizing the diversity of motivations and the richness of a soldier's profession in a single proposition was impossible. That's why we decided to multiply entry points, arguments, and messages.
From mass marketing to "CRM-ized" advertising: atomic advertising
The logic of mass advertising marketing is now outdated; especially when trying to reach younger audiences who cannot be viewed as a "homogeneous mass." Moreover, since it has been proven that message repetition is counterproductive, it's inappropriate to use the same message for everyone and to repeat it.
At Insign, multiplying contacts without repeating the message is what we call atomic advertising. Short formats, multiple themes, acting as many entry points into the potential motivations for joining the French Army. Each journey is then personalized based on the themes that the target has responded to. To deploy this, we have capitalized on technological innovation and the use of data.
Data, always data
The French Army's recruitment campaign is innovative because it's the first time a Data Lake has been dedicated to candidate recruitment. It allows for collecting and analyzing candidate data throughout their journey (profiles, interests, mode of contact, transformation leading to recruitment conversion). This aims to objectify the actions taken and initiate a process of continuous improvement, both for large-scale marketing initiatives and on-the-ground actions.
Connected to the field: "contact marketing"
Beyond a communication campaign, significant work on "contact marketing" has been accomplished with the field recruitment teams. A simple question to a chatbot, an online exchange with real soldier ambassadors, a discovery phone conversation, or an in-depth interview at a recruitment center or office—every reason is a good one to make contact with the French Army. An online appointment scheduling tool has thus been deployed, streamlining the transformation of incoming contacts.
A strong employer brand: values, evidence
Rather than simply explaining, we have allowed for viewing/experiencing what being a soldier is like, during both extraordinary and mundane moments. Recruitment, training, team spirit, values shared by all, career progression, conversion... the French Army's "employee value proposition" is solid and very real. These aren't merely external messaging points. They are values, principles, and promises made to those who join its ranks, shared by anyone commanding men and women.
