How The US Army Recruits Online

There’s an interesting article (for some of you) in USA Today about how the US Army sponsors gaming/social networks to recruit and be seen as a brand that “gets it”:

The U.S. Army is about to invade the online gaming community with an estimated $2 million sponsorship deal with the Global Gaming League website.
Starting in June, the Army will sponsor a “national gaming” area as a way to tap into the site’s 9.2 million players per month of everything from shooter games to pro baseball. It hopes to find candidates for recruitment among the 17- to 24-year-old males who are 80% of the gamers on the site — young men hard to reach with advertising.

“The consumer model for traditional media is changing,” says Gary Bishop, who oversees Army marketing and advertising. “We’re grappling with the challenge of how do we better use new media to tell the Army story. Online is probably the best way.”

GGL is a gaming community site that blends game news and play. Founder Ted Owen describes it as “ESPN meets MySpace for gamers. Video gaming is a culture. The Army has been a very forward thinker. They get it.”

It joins other advertisers who increasingly see gaming — sites and in-game product placement — as a cost-effective medium. In-game ad revenue was projected to reach $164 million in the USA last year and is expected to top $732 million by 2009, according to consumer tech researcher The Yankee Group.

Players in the national gaming area can compete for prizes and rankings in 15 games. They then can move into the top rung of competition with the service’s America’s Army video game, introduced in 2002. Top players will face off in a monthly Elite Forces tournament. Besides winning video games, top players may win a chance to try out the Army’s sophisticated computer simulations of real combat situations.

The Army’s looking for a few good online gamers - USATODAY.com