Memphis Police Department Blue Path Recruiting Campaign

Situation

Memphis Police Department (via HRO Partners, Inc.) engaged Morris Marketing Group to develop and implement a comprehensive and engaging marketing campaign to recruit high school seniors into the MPD training Public Service Technician (PST) pipeline to specifically address a shortage of officers.

While we were familiar with the Memphis Police Department’s Public Service Technician program, the Blue Path initiative was a new approach to recruiting potential trainees by specifically targeting area high school seniors by offering full college tuition subsidies, and other benefits.

The overall strategy for this project was to create awareness of the program and recruit participants to sign up. This included general communication about the opportunities provided by the Blue Path program, including a detailed timeline of strategic media communications points surrounding specifically targeted topics and deadlines.

Stats

300+ Recruits Submitted Applications
10.75 million Earned Media Impressions
$103,950 Media Advertising Equivalency

Strategy

The plan was to develop a series of different communication pieces for overall education and promotion of the Blue Path initiative to encourage participants to sign up. Specific, measurable objectives included:

  1. Creating a Blue Path logo
  2. Scheduling and facilitating a video and photo shoot for campaign collateral with current PSTs
  3. Creating a full calendar of content for all social media channels through November 2016
  4. Developing a presentation to be used at information sessions
  5. Creating a variety of different pieces of marketing collateral for the program (business cards, pop-up banners, posters, directional signage, brochures
  6. Setting up Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Gmail accounts for Blue Path and tracking engagement throughout December 31, 2016.
  7. To recruit 150 new sign ups to the program

The target audience was any Memphis area high school senior on track to graduate by June 2017 who was a US citizen and a resident of Shelby County, and/or their parent/legal guardian. The program provided a paid two year college education FREE if to qualified applicants who signed up and successfully completed the program.  Truly a path to become the “Best in Blue.”

Tactics

  • Press Releases
  • Media Alerts
  • Direct ongoing two-way communication with media partners
  • Availability for interviews
  • Information Sessions
  • Social Media Campaign

Results Within 2 months

More than 300 Potential Recruits Submitted Applications

Publicity Value $103,950

Earned Media Audience 10.75 million