Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is your quintessential powerful man. The 52-year-old former WWE wrestler and actor is an imposing man, standing at 6-foot-5-inches and weighing greater than 250 kilos. He has that basic don’t-mess-with-me look together with title and picture recognition, which made it a no brainer for The Military to ink a advertising and marketing take care of him to juice its recruiting efforts. Since 2013, the Military has confronted a recruiting disaster, with male enlistments dropping a staggering 35%, in accordance with service knowledge.
Earlier this 12 months, the Military signed a take care of the United Soccer League, the minor league soccer league within the U.S. that Johnson co-owns. The deal stated Johnson would additionally function a model ambassador for the Military. However the Military stated he fell brief on his finish of the deal by not publishing sufficient service-related posts to his social media accounts, in accordance with inside emails and paperwork reviewed by Navy.com.
Now, the Military is in negotiations with the UFL to overview and finalize the small print of the partnership, which Navy.com says was “so catastrophic” it led to a projected lack of 38 enlistments, in accordance with an inside overview of the plan reviewed by the publication. The Military, nevertheless, says it’s too early to decipher the consequences of the marketing campaign.
“We won’t have a clear view of the results of the partnership or impacts to the Army’s financial investment until all marketing elements are complete,” an Military spokesperson informed Fortune. These advertising and marketing parts embrace Military branding on UFL participant uniforms and fields, “activations” throughout the championship sport, and highschool clinics.
“This partnership allowed the Army to increase awareness and engage with a wider audience for Americans to learn about the possibilities of Army services,” the spokesperson stated.
Why the deal went south
The Military didn’t actually know precisely what it was getting when it inked a take care of Johnson and the UFL. Whereas “on its surface, the Army’s attempt to enter into a partnership with The Rock seems like a can’t-miss opportunity,” the chance isn’t actually what they thought it could be,” Megan Sweeney, a former senior adviser for communications on the U.S. Division of Protection, informed Fortune.
“While the Army may have thought they were getting The Rock, they were instead primarily getting a partnership with a minor football league,” Sweeney stated. “The Rock is an investor of the UFL, but it’s not like he’s on the sidelines of every game. As a result, the Army seems to have paid Hollywood-level sponsorship money for minor-league exposure.”
The true attraction of the deal the Military thought it was getting was Johnson’s social-media attain; he has 396 million followers on Instagram. The Military had valued every social media submit at $1 million, in accordance with paperwork obtained by Navy.com, however Johnson had solely made two of the 5 promised posts.
“In the Army’s defense, they allegedly did not receive the level of social media exposure they were promised by The Rock’s team,” Sweeney stated. “It may have cost the Army millions, but this incident will certainly damage Rock’s reputation as a brand ambassador without a further explanation on his end.” The UFL didn’t reply to Fortune’s requests for remark.
To that finish, it seems as if the failed deal isn’t essentially resulting from a mismatch in model attraction, however slightly unfinished enterprise.
“Some of the problems here seem to be contractual rather than tactical,” Jenn Szekely, president of worldwide branding and design consultancy Coley Porter Bell, informed Fortune. “If [Johnson] hasn’t delivered what was promised, that’s a failing of the deal, not the brand proposition. It’s not just about signing a name, it’s about execution.”
Nonetheless, the issue with the deal might be bigger than simply tying up a couple of free ends. The Military wants younger recruits, but solely 23% of Gen Z say they’re keen about sports activities, in accordance with a 2021 Fandom Analytics Initiative survey of practically 1,400 folks.
“While The Rock is a huge star with gravitas and status, the UFL is a relatively new entity,” Szekely stated. (The UFL simply began play in March 2024). “On top of that, we know a large portion of Gen Z doesn’t even care about sports, so the UFL as the center of gravity for the campaign was not necessarily the winning strategy.”
The Military informed Navy.com it’s working with the UFL to “rebalance the contract,” and “The Rock remains a good partner to the Army.” But, it additionally stated “it’s unfortunate he was pulled away at a time when we expected him to be present with us to create content for his social media channels.”
Conditions like these are a case for rock-solid contracts for model ambassadorships, consultants stated.
“It’s important to include provisions in brand ambassador contracts that protect both parties in the event one side decides to desert their responsibilities,” Sweeney stated.
