USAF plans a new campaign and social media partnerships that will focus on “putting the Air Force front and centre as a champion of women in sports and girls in sports”.

As part of the drive, USAF looks to partner with influencers and brands that connect with audiences the services need to reach. 

According to Air and Space Forces Magazine, they include Super Girl Surf Pro, an annual surfing competition; Athletes Unlimited, a growing basketball league; and Amanda Sorenson, a driver in the Formula Drift motorsport competition. “All have appeal to women the Air Force doesn’t think it reaches now. With tens of thousands of followers on social media, they represent growth,” the report said.

Air Force leaders and experts increasingly note the challenging long-term trends the service faces in convincing young Americans to join: declining numbers of eligible candidates, lower interest and propensity to serve, and reduced exposure to military people and service.

Acting undersecretary of USAF Kristyn E Jones described in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee last week the Women in Sports Campaign, which she said, “aligns [USAF] recruitment with female athletes through direct marketing as well as enduring partnerships that encourage female participation in sports”, the magazine reported.

The target of the campaign, Jones said, were “approximately 7.6m 18-to-24-year-old women [who] watch women’s sports on YouTube”. Taken as a group, “these viewers constitute a key demographic for [USAF] recruitment efforts”, Jones added.

The Women in Sports campaign is set to launch this summer, hoping to inspire more young women to stay fit and consider service, the magazine reported.

“Less than 25% of females ages 18 to 24 are actually eligible to serve in the military,” said Lara Stott, senior strategic adviser for marketing at USAF’s recruiting service, speaking to the magazine. “And one of the big reasons is due to obesity and being out of shape and other health issues that kind of go along with that.

“So, we’ve been working on how to build an enduring brand initiative that would really be focused on putting the Air Force front and centre as a champion of women in sports and girls in sports,” Stott continued. “And we want to use this as an opportunity to kind of be a catalyst for the next generation of young women to pursue sports at whatever level they want to pursue.”

By encouraging more girls and women to participate in sports, USAF hopes to increase the percentage of young women fit enough to serve, the magazine said.

“By the time they hit that 18-to-24-year-old range when we’re actually trying to recruit, if they don’t already have those healthy habits, it is much harder to teach them at that point,” Stott said. “It’s really about instilling this sense of making that an important part of your self-care as a woman.”

To get that across, Stott said, USAF will:

• Expand presence at prominent women’s sporting events 
• Build new partnerships with brands and influencers with greater focus “on the next generation of female athletes” 
• Highlight USAF and Space Force athletes from the USAF Academy, university officer training or the USAF World Class Athlete Program.

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