The new marketing operation is expected to be at initial operational capability this month, McCarthy said, but will not reach full operating capability until late fall. A lot of that is how you communicate to the American people - your message to every demographic. "We noticed we were having a challenge with quality and other issues. "We took a very hard look at ourselves," McCarthy said. The wholesale changeover came about nine months after the "Trump administration responded to an internal audit that found millions of dollars in 'ineffective marketing programs' during fiscal year 2016 by withholding 50% of the AMRG's budget in its latest defense spending bill," Adweek reported. We didn't have the appropriate talent mix between uniform and civilians, as well as the types of marketing analysts." "We didn't have the right talent mix, the right leadership.
"We weren't performing in marketing we had a lot of challenges," Ryan McCarthy, who is now serving as acting secretary of the Army, told, describing the reasons for the marketing shake-up.
DDB beat out McCann Worldgroup, which had been the Army's ad firm for more than a decade.
The Army is in the process of moving its marketing operation to Chicago after the service awarded a contract worth up to $4 billion in late November to DDB Chicago Inc., a subsidiary of DDB Worldwide.