Recruitment Reinvented

NOAA Corps is one of the nation’s eight uniformed services and an integral part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While at sea, NOAA Corps officers operate ships that map the seafloor, monitor oceanographic and atmospheric conditions, and support fisheries research. Aviators pilot NOAA’s research aircraft, including “hurricane hunters,” collecting data essential to hurricane and flood prediction, disaster response, and resource management. When not at sea or in the air, NOAA Corps officers apply their expertise to advance new technologies, lead program and project teams, and respond to severe weather events, oil spills, and other emergencies. NOAA Corps faced challenges in recruiting diverse candidates despite offering these exciting opportunities in marine and atmospheric sciences. The Hatcher Group was enlisted in October 2023 to revamp NOAA Corps’ recruitment strategy, focusing on advertising, branding, messaging, and paid digital marketing.  As a seasoned marketing partner with proven success in recruiting diverse candidates for government agencies, as well as a history working on complex environmental subjects for agencies—including NOAA—Hatcher was well-positioned to be an ideal partner.

NOAA Corps needed to recruit quality and diverse candidates who can perform, support, and lead operations to save lives, defend the country, enforce laws, and protect the environment. However, the organization has encountered difficulties in recruiting officers, a problem compounded by a mandate to increase the number of Corps officer positions set by the NOAA Corps Amendment Act of 2020. External factors presented additional challenges: In the uniformed service recruiting environment, the proportion of youth who report they are considering uniformed service continues to steadily decline. In addition to the negative trends in propensity to serve, eligibility for uniform service is also declining with unfavorable trends particularly around medical eligibility. Recent statistics show that less than 1 in 3 youth will qualify for military service due to obesity, physical fitness, and medical eligibility. Finally, NOAA Corps faced extremely low brand awareness. With a small recruiting team, they lacked a comprehensive marketing strategy to attract qualified candidates. Hatcher was tasked with reimagining NOAA Corps’ brand and implementing an advertising strategy to address these challenges. 

Our partnership with NOAA Corps to drive the recruitment of diverse candidates showed significant results. In the early stages of implementation, the campaign garnered over 1.1 million impressions across digital advertising tactics, driving thousands of visits to the NOAA Corps website and recruitment form. Most notably, the campaign resulted in a substantial increase in prescreened applicants, exceeding both client expectations and previous recruitment cycles. 

The partnership between NOAA Corps and Hatcher Group exemplifies the power of strategic branding and targeted digital marketing in achieving recruitment goals. Together, Hatcher and NOAA Corps have laid the foundation for increased candidate interest and application submissions, empowering NOAA Corps to build a stronger, more dynamic workforce.

In just four months:

• Hatcher produced a foundational findings research report, a marketing plan that included audience personas and targeted messaging, and an updated brand look and feel. 
• Our team deployed creative ads and digital tactics that generated over 1.1 million impressions in February 2024 alone, the first full month of campaign tactic deployment; over the course of the campaign, the ads generated over 4.4 million impressions.
• The campaign also drove almost 136,000 website visits. 
• Ultimately, the campaign resulted in a significant increase in applications: Just these initial stages led to Hatcher and NOAA Corps doubling their submission goals.