Attachment_2_Sample_Tasks.docx

Sample Tasks

Phase One: Written Response

1) Marketing: Strategic/Communications Task

Assume the following:

1. That the Army continues to face a challenging recruiting environment resulting from, among other reasons, continuing conflicts in the Middle East, an improved economy, and fewer influencers (parents, teachers, coaches, etc.) that are familiar with or have served in the military.

1. The Army will employ an Enterprise campaign strategy with a goal of communicating the benefits of the Army as an institution worth joining vs. promoting individual benefits (e.g., job skills, training, etc.)

1. That spending on recruiting communications will continue to be under pressure and potentially shrink as the Federal Government looks to tackle the deficit.

With these assumptions in mind, provide your thinking on the target, messaging and media strategies that the Army should employ to generate awareness and interest in considering the Army vs. other career choices, including the other branches of US Armed Services. Your recommendations should cover generating interest for both the Active Army and Army Reserve for both enlisted and officer requirements.

Target Strategy:

· List with specificity the groups and/or individuals you propose targeting as prospects and influencers.

· Provide your recommendations as to how the Army should prioritize targets in order to achieve the most bang for its recruitment buck. Your recommendation should include a ranking of target groups with a recommended % to be spent on each group.

· Describe with specificity your recommendation as to how the Army should validate the target priorities recommended.

Messaging Strategy:

· Provide your recommendations and rationale for an “enterprise” campaign strategy. What do you see as the key benefit(s) to communicate to the target audiences, and how would you support those benefits through copy and/or visual communication?

· Demonstrate how you would bring your proposed strategy to life through presentation of an overarching creative campaign idea, utilizing a variety of traditional and new media channels that could work against recruiting prospects and garnering support from influencers for:

· Active Army and Army Reserve

· Army special missions (doctors, nurses, lawyers, chaplains etc)

· Building brand equity

· Provide your recommendations for how to best evaluate the effectiveness and results of your proposed campaign idea.

Media Strategy:

· Based on our current media approach and mix (refer to plans provided on Army extranet site) and assuming a hypothetical annual marketing budget of approximately $160-170mm, recommend the media communications strategies you would implement to help maintain Army brand awareness and quality recruiting prospect lead generation. Please indicate how you would prioritize the dollars and provide clear rationale to support your recommended priorities.

· What media channels would you change or eliminate vs. our current approach?

· How would you recommend deploying social and mobile media to help generate visits to our website and recruiting leads?

· Identify any innovative media tactics that you believe the Army should consider.

· Provide a budget break out for your recommended media communications approach. Please be specific as to each marketing communications vehicle you propose.

· Describe with specificity your recommendation as to how the Army should validate the media strategies recommended.

2) Management Team Integration Task

· Present your organization’s management approach for addressing the recruiting challenges and issues facing the Army. What are your specific organizational and resource strengths that will be relevant to our PWS?

· Provide a clear picture of your organizational structure, relevant resources and capabilities for executing the various communications channels that would be recommended for use on the Army business. These include: advertising (traditional and online); media planning and buying; digital/mobile/social media strategy and content; multicultural marketing; promotions, event and sponsorship marketing; direct, CRM and database marketing; public relations; and strategic planning.

· Indicate the approach and best practice processes you would employ to ensure effective program integration; and specifically for:

· Program administration and management

· Team coordination and communication, internally and with the Army

· Strategic and tactical planning

· Campaign development, execution and assessment

· Please address how you would handle the following hypothetical situation: a tactical recruiting opportunity presents itself where an integrated campaign solution is required within a month. How do you establish which agency personnel/resources and subcontract partners are required for the planning and execution of the campaign, how do you get them involved and fully engaged, and how do you provide oversight and quality control over the effort? (Note, speculative creative, media or other tactical solutions are not required here; rather just your approach for effectively engaging your resources on behalf of the Army).

3) Marketing Planning: Civilian Job Recruiting Initiative

In addition to military personnel, the Army must recruit civilians for various jobs at its installations. These range from maintenance and construction roles to professional services such as accounting, design, and legal etc.

The Army has never executed a recruiting marketing effort for these jobs. Recruitment currently happens at each base, with jobs being posted nationally on the USAJobs.gov site. There is currently no master repository of recruiting leads data for these positions. Another challenge is that the target prospects are significantly diverse in terms of professional skills, education, age and geography.

In fact, the Army has not yet initiated any strategic planning or research on this program. As such, we are interested in how you would approach an assignment like this from an initial planning standpoint, and under the assumption that we cannot answer any questions you might have about this program since no prior planning or research has been done.

Specifically, if you were engaged by the Army to tackle this challenge:

· What planning steps would you recommend the Army take to determine the viability of recruitment marketing for civilian jobs? And if determined to be viable, what steps would you take to develop a marketing plan and budget?

· How would you approach organizing and centralizing our data so that it is actionable?

· Provide your initial thoughts on the elements of our Enterprise strategy and our military recruitment marketing that are most relevant for any future civilian jobs outreach. What elements would you recommend adjusting for a civilian jobs strategy, and why?

Phase Two: Oral Presentation

1) Marketing: Strategic/Communications Task

Briefly summarize your recommended strategic approach and rationale from your written RFP response, and then further demonstrate how you would bring that approach to life for Active Army and Army Reserve recruiting:

· Creative concepts that communicate the Army as an institution that are specifically aimed at Active Army and Army Reserve recruiting prospects and their influencers. Provide clear rationale for your choice of the key benefit(s) and support points to communicate. Delineate the differences you see, if any, in the communications to these two target groups. Demonstrate how your concepts can work across multiple media channels.

· Tactical media concepts that you believe can cost-effectively and efficiently break-through the clutter, connect with Active Army and Army Reserve prospects, and help encourage them to seek more information about the Army (e.g., visit GoArmy.com). In terms of “media”, please consider all paid, owned and earned channels available to the Army, and provide detail on which channel(s) you would employ and why. Also please provide a budget estimate, and what trade-offs, if any, you might make vs. current Army activities to execute the tactic.

2) Management Team Integration Task

Building on your recommended approach from your written RFP response, demonstrate how you would tackle the following hypothetical challenges from an organizational and operational standpoint:

· Fiscal circumstances require the Army to reduce its planned marketing budget by 25%. Review the steps you would take to address this situation with the Army, how you would engage your team to explore opportunities for budget reductions that minimize the effect on marketing performance, and how you would suggest prioritizing those opportunities.

· Research indicates that our campaign strategy is not working as effectively as desired against African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American target prospects. How would you engage your team, including any sub-contractor partners, to get to the bottom of this issue and develop potential solutions? From your best-practice perspective, what roles do you think you, any partner agencies and Army Marketing should play to most effectively address the issue in a timely fashion?

· The Army expresses concern that its event marketing programs are generating recruiting leads for Active Army, but not Army Reserve. How would you engage your team to research and address this issue? Who on your team would likely be involved and playing a significant role on the initiative? How would you relate the issues and potential solutions to the activities and influences of our other marketing efforts?

· One of your members is given direction and feedback by an Army project manager that is inconsistent or contradictory to what you believe Army leadership wants. How do you address this situation at the senior Army leadership level? At the day-to-day working level?

· In a planning discussion with the Army, one of your subcontractor partners brings up an idea that the Army expresses strong interest in, but that you, as the primary contractor feels is not in the Army’s best interest. How do you navigate and resolve this situation in a way that best promotes the Army’s interests and your internal team esprit de corps?