U.S. Army Cryptaris Mission
Open the game- Brand
- U.S. Army
- Year
- 2015
- Objective
- Sales
- Industry
- Non-profit
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- UM
- With
- MRM//McCANN
- With
- McCann New York
- With
- Plan8
- With
- Tool
Objective
The U.S. Army needed to identify and recruit elite STEM talent for careers in Army engineering and technical roles. Recognizing that top candidates from institutions like Stanford, MIT, and Harvard required extraordinary challenges to stand out, the Army sought an experience with equally selective acceptance rates to attract only the most analytically gifted candidates.
Solution
Cryptaris Mission was a WebGL-based puzzle game comprising seven escalating difficulty levels, each testing problem-solving and analytical capabilities required for Army STEM careers. Players encountered progressively complex puzzles, with only 5% capable of reaching completion. The game was promoted through a YouTube trailer that drove traffic to the primary site and featured integration with goarmy.com to guide interested players toward job opportunities. Users spent an average of 2 minutes 55 seconds navigating the challenge, and organic content distribution emerged as players shared gameplay experiences on Reddit and YouTube.
Results
The campaign generated user-generated content with participants sharing gameplay strategies and experiences across social platforms including Reddit and YouTube. The initiative reached millions of website visitors and targeted STEM-skilled recruits.
