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 response to service data.
Earlier this yr, 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 quick on his finish of the deal by not publishing sufficient service-related posts to his social media accounts, in response to inside emails and paperwork reviewed by Military.com.
Now, the Military is in negotiations with the UFL to assessment and finalize the main points of the partnership, which Navy.com says was “so catastrophic” it led to a projected lack of 38 enlistments, in response to an inside assessment of the plan reviewed by the publication. The Military, nevertheless, says it’s too early to decipher the consequences of the marketing campaign.
“We gained’t have a transparent view of the outcomes of the partnership or impacts to the Military’s monetary funding till all advertising and marketing components are full,” an Military spokesperson instructed Fortune. These advertising and marketing components embody Military branding on UFL participant uniforms and fields, “activations” throughout the championship recreation, and highschool clinics.
“This partnership allowed the Military to extend consciousness and have interaction with a wider viewers for People to study in regards to the prospects of Military providers,” 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 floor, the Military’s try to enter right into a partnership with The Rock looks like a can’t-miss alternative,” the chance isn’t actually what they thought it will be,” Megan Sweeney, a former senior adviser for communications on the U.S. Division of Protection, instructed Fortune.
“Whereas the Military might have thought they had been getting The Rock, they had been as an alternative primarily getting a partnership with a minor soccer league,” Sweeney stated. “The Rock is an investor of the UFL, but it surely’s not like he’s on the sidelines of each recreation. Because of this, the Military appears to have paid Hollywood-level sponsorship cash for minor-league publicity.”
The true enchantment 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 put up at $1 million, in response to paperwork obtained by Navy.com, however Johnson had solely made two of the 5 promised posts.
“Within the Military’s protection, they allegedly didn’t obtain the extent of social media publicity they had been promised by The Rock’s staff,” Sweeney stated. “It might have value the Military thousands and thousands, however this incident will definitely harm Rock’s repute as a model ambassador and not using a additional clarification on his finish.” 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 enchantment, however moderately unfinished enterprise.
“A number of the issues right here appear to be contractual moderately than tactical,” Jenn Szekely, president of world branding and design consultancy Coley Porter Bell, instructed Fortune. “If [Johnson] hasn’t delivered what was promised, that’s a failing of the deal, not the model proposition. It’s not nearly signing a reputation, it’s about execution.”
Nonetheless, the issue with the deal could possibly 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 obsessed with sports activities, in response to a 2021 Fandom Analytics Initiative survey of practically 1,400 folks.
“Whereas The Rock is a big star with gravitas and standing, the UFL is a comparatively new entity,” Szekely stated. (The UFL simply started play in March 2024). “On prime of that, we all know a big portion of Gen Z doesn’t even care about sports activities, so the UFL as the middle of gravity for the marketing campaign was not essentially the profitable technique.”
The Military instructed Navy.com it’s working with the UFL to “rebalance the contract,” and “The Rock stays an excellent associate to the Military.” But, it additionally stated “it’s unlucky he was pulled away at a time once we anticipated him to be current with us to create content material for his social media channels.”
Conditions like these are a case for rock-solid contracts for model ambassadorships, specialists stated.
“It’s vital to incorporate provisions in model ambassador contracts that defend each events within the occasion one aspect decides to abandon their duties,” Sweeney stated.
