US Navy launches Reddit Scavenger Hunt to find tech-savvy submariners

• The US Navy is recruiting for positions on its submarines on Reddit.
• The Army has faced recruiting challenges in recent years, forcing it to get creative.
• The Navy’s campaign includes activities to engage Reddit users in submarine-related tasks.

The US Navy is looking for more tech-savvy recruits to make up the less than 1 percent of sailors serving on submarines, and it thinks Reddit might be the best place to find them.

The US military is no stranger to rigged recruiting campaigns.

There were these ads from 1987 that compared joining the Marines to being a fantasy medieval knight. The Simpsons even parodied the phenomenon in 2001 when Bart’s short-lived boy band “New Kids on the Blecch” released a chart-topping hit that subliminally encouraged kids to join the Navy.

While the Navy’s advertising campaigns may make enlistment seem like an exciting adventure, some military wings have experienced recruiting difficulties in recent years.

Last year, the Army sent letters to 1,900 active-duty soldiers who were discharged after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, asking them to come back. According to NPR, experts say the percentage of young, able-bodied Americans willing to join the military has been shrinking over time.

To find its “next generation of submariners,” the US Navy is now looking to Reddit to find recruits with “a rare blend of intellect and curiosity,” according to VML, the marketing agency behind the Navy’s new Reddit campaign. The Navy and VML have partnered to create the new “Sub Hunter” campaign, in which VML says Redditors will have access to activities that use the skills Navy submarine crew members must have, such as deciphering sonar records.

The campaign will provide clues about famous events and submarines in Navy history for Reddit users to decipher. Redditors will have access to redacted coordinate data from famous Navy historical events and a collection of underwater recordings with a hidden, encrypted audio byte that users will listen to “just like a Navy sonar technician” to discover the message, says VML.

Ryan Blum, VML’s creative director, said in the statement that the goal of the campaign is to look “deep into the world of subreddits” to find the “special type of person” it takes to serve on a Navy submarine.

“We know that less than 1 percent of future sailors qualify to serve on a submarine,” Blum said. “These online communities are full of passionate and knowledgeable people, and we’re challenging them to discover something they didn’t even know they were looking for.”

The Navy did not immediately return a request for comment about the Reddit campaign.