Listen to Officers
Current and incoming officers helped the team understand motivations, expectations, and perceptions. Their experience grounded the recruitment story in the work itself.
Art/Creative Direction
NOAA Corps Recruitment
NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps
Challenge
NOAA Corps offered a distinctive combination of science, aviation, maritime operations, and uniformed service, yet low awareness limited candidate consideration. A small recruiting team needed to attract qualified, diverse candidates while supporting growth in the officer corps. The challenge was to make this unfamiliar career immediately understandable and show why its blend of exploration, leadership, and public service mattered.
Strategy
Interviews and focus groups with current and incoming officers, market research, competitive analysis, and training-program data informed audience personas and messaging. The team connected scientific curiosity, environmental stewardship, and service to clear career pathways. Recruitment planning moved from awareness to consideration and application, pairing a distinct employer brand with digital outreach and recruiting-event materials.
Creative Direction
NOAA Corps needed a complete recruitment brand system built around its existing seal. Deep ocean blues, bright accents, officer photography, and textures inspired by nautical charts, weather systems, and ocean waves made the mission tangible. A coordinated typography and graphic system carried messages such as “Sail. Soar. Serve.” and “Adventure Awaits” across advertising, recruitment posters, banners, flyers, and motion.
My Role
Creative Director, working with Hatcher’s multidisciplinary team.
Collaborators
Hatcher’s creative, strategy, account, and digital marketing teams, in collaboration with NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps.
The Approach
Insight into ideas.
Ideas into experience.
Define the Distinction
Research and training-program data informed audience personas and a position connecting science, service, and adventure. Messaging translated that promise into maritime and aviation pathways, including a dedicated Direct-to-Flight recruitment flyer.
Build a Connected System
The existing seal anchored a flexible visual identity. Color, typography, patterns, photography, and messaging were documented in brand guidelines and applied across digital ads, print recruitment materials, event displays, and video.
Connect Interest to Action
The wider team paired creative with paid digital outreach and recruitment destinations. Performance reporting informed ongoing adjustments, including a stronger focus on application conversion as the recruitment deadline approached.
Selected Creative
A closer look
at the work.
Digital Campaign
Officer photography, expressive color, and mission-led messaging create a connected advertising system.
View the Artwork ↗Recruitment Posters
A coordinated poster series connects scientific exploration, service, and adventure through officer photography and direct messaging.
View the Artwork ↗Brand System
Brand guidelines bring together the campaign’s color palette, typography, graphic elements, and applications.
View the Artwork ↗Adventure Awaits
An aviation-focused advertisement pairs NOAA Corps officers with a bold invitation to explore a career in service and science.
View the Artwork ↗Motion & Storytelling
Watch the work.
NOAA Corps Recruitment: The Campaign Story
A 2025 case-study reel brings together the recruitment challenge, research foundation, visual identity, campaign applications, and broader team results.
The Result
Creative with
a clear purpose.
Hatcher’s April 2024 case study reports that the initial recruitment campaign exceeded its goal of 100 completed applications. These are results of the broader team campaign, which combined research, creative development, and paid media.
4.4M
Digital ad impressions reported for the initial campaign.
136K
Website visits reported for the initial campaign.
202
Completed applications against a goal of 100.