Social media marketing drives The Swedish Armed Forces recruitment

Oct. 12

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You can call it a recruitment drive or a promotion with the use of social media, but what the Swedish armed forces have done in their latest campaign has been an eye-opener to say the least.

Interesting Campaign “Who Cares”?

The target was to get 4300 applicants for 1430 new positions. After they were done they had 9930 applicants. That is more than twice the required figures. So what did they do that drove people to take up something that would ask them to leave their regular comforts and take up harsh lifestyle. They counted on people wanting exactly that. Sometimes to make people strive for something all you need is a small push.

A small box, the size of your average shipping container was placed in Central Stockholm, retrofitted with cameras inside and outside to stream onto a campaign site. What would be streamed. The box was a holding cell to hold a citizen who would wait inside it until someone willing to take his place came. Is not it creative social media marketing?

Video Expressing Who Really Cares? , A Massage To Be Real Social !!

You can call it a recruitment drive or a promotion with the use of social media marketing, but what the Swedish armed forces have done in their latest campaign has been an eye-opener to say the least.

What they were trying to prove? They wanted to see how many people would go out of their way to save someone whom they did not even know and take their place in a holding cell. In a world where people are expressing themselves in social media from the comfort of their homes, how many would leave the same to fight for what they care about in the real world? What lengths would people go for each other.

Each hour the doors of the cell would open and if someone was there he could leave. The cameras streamed to the campaign site where people could watch and do nothing. They would have to come and physically replace the person. A blaring question: Who Cares?

Apparently a lot of people did. In a duration of 89 hours 74 people replaced each other for the cell. Replaced someone they did not know or were related to. As a matter of fact people from all over the country travelled to the box. Social Media marketing is bursting with the out-pour of conversation.

“A Real Like” Campaign By Swedish Armed Force

The recruitment drive of the Swedish armed forces is commendable. On their recruitment page you can see their campaign dubbed “A Real Like” and proceeds to explain how people like them for real instead of the virtual likes of the online world.

The page enlists the efforts of the army during moments of calamity and key areas of service which include:

The coastal mine clearance of 2005 at the Port of Gothenburg
2006 forest fire outside Harads
Dam Building in Hammerdal during the floods and snow clearance in Gotaland in 2010
Oil spill cleanup of 2011
Training of forces that will relieve the current presence in Afghanistan at the end of the year

The Swedish armed forces have proven that people are ready to give up their own comforts to help other people. They managed to prove that they could attract young people who want to make a difference for real. People who care.

Look at this Real Like 🙂 Cute isn’t it?