Westar Aerospace & Defense Group, Inc. (U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center)
Client
The U.S. Army Safety Office was undergoing a transformation into the Combat Readiness Center, a proactive research and communications resource dedicated to preserving Army combat power through aggressive composite risk management and investigation of all Army losses.
Challenge
The U.S. Army was losing 200 - 300 soldiers a year to accidents, most of them in driving incidents that happen off duty.
Enter Reingold
To stop this senseless loss to our fighting force, Reingold crafted and coordinated multitiered messaging campaigns to reach the million-member U.S. Army. The Army's previous risk management efforts were hampered by the word "safety"—widely perceived by soldiers as an affront to a "warrior" culture in which they willingly risk their lives for one another. Particularly among soldiers who had experienced battlefield conditions, safety was not seen as being critical to the success of their mission or even to their own lives. In addition, most soldiers age 18 to 24 have a feeling of invincibility that makes them less receptive to safety messaging. To overcome these issues, Reingold framed risk management in terms of preserving combat readiness and protecting fellow soldiers. Then we created PSAs tying the readiness message to popular NASCAR and WWE celebrities, generated ad and poster concepts to reach the Army's diverse audiences and demographics, helped create compelling identities for driving, air, and ground units, and introduced exciting partnerships with the National Hot Rod Association.
Results
Reingold's PSA reached hundreds of thousands of soldiers and reservists—at no cost to the Army—through placements in 800 Army and Air Force Exchange Service theaters.