Navy Sinks TV Advertising, Will Aim To Hit Target Audience On Esports Streams

The U.S. Navy is torpedoing its TV advertising, skipping the Super Bowl, and targeting its intended audience where it is.

Instead of TV, the Navy said it will spend nearly all its ad money on online ads, with a particular focus on advertising linked to esports.

The independent U.S. Naval Institute reported the Navy will become a sponsor of esports events and field an all-Navy esports team.

In 2020, the Navy will spend nearly $33 million, almost its entire advertising budget, online. A tiny proportion will go to local billboard and radio ads. The TV buy will be zeroed out.

That’s a change from just two years ago, when about half the Navy’s ad budget went to TV ads, including the “Forged by the Sea” campaign.

Adjust Aim, The Target Has Moved

The Navy’s target audience of potential recruits — 17 to 28-year-olds — “is not watching,” traditional TV, including the Super Bowl, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Robert Burke said during a recent appearance at the Military Reporters and Editors annual conference.

That audience is on Alphabet's GOOG YouTube and Amazon.com's AMZN Twitch, the Navy believes.

“Right now, it’s predominantly digital that’s bringing us better returns,” Burke said, according to USNI. “YouTube, five, ten, 15-second headers that repeat for the audience that shows interest in them, that turns into leads at call centers.”

The Navy Recruiting Command used a 2018 Syracuse University study that showed esports viewership approaching 85 million by 2021, with more than 60% of viewers under age 25.

The Army also fields an eSport team, based at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

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