The Royal Navy to use Bebo in recruitment campaign

The Royal Navy is the latest advertiser to tap into the social networking phenomenon, launching a series of profile pages on Bebo.

The pages are being established as part of the Navy’s integrated recruitment campaign, which aims to focus on recruiting British youth.

Internet users will be directed to the profile pages by a series of online display ads, which will run for a month until the end of April.

The Bebo profile pages are for the pilots, engineers, medical officers featured in its television campaign and will see real-life employees talking about their jobs and what life is really like working in various roles advertised.

One profile page features Brendan Spoors, a Royal Navy pilot, who has travelled the world and has become a TV star since joining the force.

Visitors to the profile pages can download free content, including wallpapers of fighter jets, images of ships and aircraft, video clips, widgets and interactive games.

The Navy says that by creating profile pages for real people who work in the Royal Navy, the recruitment message is brought to life in an interesting and personal way.

Royal Navy head of marketing Iwan Williams adds: "This is an ideal way to talk to our target audience in an environment of their choice and to illustrate to potential recruits what a career in the Royal Navy involves. We are particularly targeting 16to 24-year-olds, so Bebo was identified as a popular site to enable two-way communications with this audience."

The social networking strategy has been created by digital media agency i-Level, COI Communications’ media and planning shop.