Project
Two legendary shipbuilding companies, Newport News and Ingalls Shipbuilding merged in 2011. Qorvis Communications was hired to brand and promote the new company as Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) to its key audiences: the U.S. Navy, the Marine Corps and Congress and throughout its local shipbuilding communities.
Click here to watch the award-winning “Anywhere” TV commercial.
Solution
In the initial stages, Qorvis Communications led the branding effort for HII through strategic messaging and brand exercises. We developed new company messages that promoted the combined forces of two major names in the shipbuilding industry and its 130+ year history of quality and craftsmanship. The Qorvis Communications team created print, online and radio advertising to promote the demand for its various classes of ships to the U.S. Navy, Congress and the Marine Corps.
As HII’s brand awareness grew, we extended the advertising to include campaigns focusing on the company’s skilled labor force and technology, its critical role in national security, as well as community ads commemorating key patriotic holidays.
Qorvis also managed the company’s advertising buy for each campaign. We provided a comprehensive schedule for ad placement, executed research and recommended the placement of new campaign ads in approved publications and newspapers throughout Virginia and the national capital region.
The team was also tasked with creating “Capture Campaigns” to gain awareness and to support specific HII initiatives, such as the funding to build additional aircraft carriers as well as the LPD and LPD Flight II. Tactics for these campaigns led HII to invest in media it had never done so before, including TV, online videos and social media – all while continuing to leverage proven channels such as print and radio.
These campaigns were not only positively received by its target audiences and within the industry, but also won HII its first award recognitions for powerful and effective advertising.