Clear Channel Launches "iHeartRadio's Show Your Stripes"
Largest Public Service Campaign in Company History Will Help U.S. Military Veterans Find Jobs
Biggest Names in Entertainment and Business Join the Campaign to Support Hiring Vets and Bring Attention to Issue of Veteran Unemployment
New York, N.Y. – June 6, 2013 – Clear Channel, the media company in the U.S. with the largest reach, today announced the launch of iHeartRadio’s Show Your Stripes, a company-wide community service initiative to address the issue of unemployment among U.S. military veterans and encourage businesses to hire skilled veterans. Clear Channel will spend more than $75 million in radio, digital and out-of-home resources to highlight the skills brought back by returning servicemen and women and their value to employers in the workplace.
iHeartRadio’s Show Your Stripes – with the tagline “Hire Smart – Hire Vets” – is a long-term effort to help guide veterans back into civilian life by highlighting their valuable training and experience. It will include radio, digital and out-of-home public service announcements (PSAs) from the biggest names in entertainment and pop culture that will reach Clear Channel Media and Entertainment’s 243 million monthly U.S. listeners, the 60 million unique monthly visitors reached via its digital platforms and the 141 million people reached by Clear Channel Outdoor’s out-of-home advertising every month. iHeartRadio’s Show Your Stripes will leverage Clear Channel’s powerful cross platform reach to create valuable career opportunities for returning veterans. All public service announcements will direct listeners to showyourstripes.org – a centralized, easy-to-use destination for veterans, businesses and supporters.
By the year 2016, more than a million highly trained servicemen and women will end their military careers and transition back to civilian life. According to a 2012 survey by Prudential and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, 60 percent of returning servicemen and women said they have faced a challenge translating the valuable skills they obtained in the military into civilian employment. 98 percent of all veterans cited at least one challenge in seeking employment.
To help deliver the message that hiring skilled veterans is a smart decision for businesses, iHeartRadio’s Show Your Stripes will engage iconic legends in music and pop culture. To launch the campaign, artists across all music and entertainment genres, including Elton John, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Ryan Seacrest, Mario Lopez, Trace Adkins and LL Cool J have recorded a series of PSAs that showcase stories from veterans who have successfully found jobs. Kelly Clarkson tells the story of Jeff Marshall, a 10-year member of the U.S. Air Force special operations command who is now working in online operations at Facebook.
“It is a privilege for me to join Clear Channel in their efforts to assist the many men and women who have served in the military to find good jobs that use their expert skills and trainings when they return home,” said recording legend Elton John. “iHeartRadio’s Show Your Stripes is a powerful platform for musicians, celebrities and businesses to work together to make this happen.”
The campaign’s digital platform, showyourstripes.org, was designed by Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, in partnership with Monster.com and Military.com, to easily and effectively connect businesses and veterans. Monster Worldwide, the global leader in successfully connecting people to job opportunities, along with its subsidiary, Military.com, the leading source for defense news and military benefits and veteran jobs information provides veteran users access to 70,000 military-friendly jobs through their online services, as well as offer businesses the opportunity to post jobs specifically geared toward the skills provided by veterans. Showyourstripes.org offers veterans and businesses a customized experience that delivers the most relevant and helpful employment resources in a clear and easy-to-navigate way.
“The U.S. government has invested billions of dollars training the most technically skilled and qualified group of veterans in our history. These veterans are now returning home with the kind of specialized training that makes them ideal job candidates for American businesses – small and large,” said John Sykes, President of Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises. “By leveraging Clear Channel’s enormous reach to showcase the value that these returning vets offer employers, we can generate real action – connecting highly qualified veterans to employers who need their services.”
“The most important element of making a successful transition from the military to civilian life is getting the right job to begin a post-military career,” said retired Navy Rear Adm. T. McCreary, President of Military.com and Vice President of Monster Worldwide. “We are happy to join the iHeartRadio Show Your Stripes effort because of its deep reach into Clear Channel's communities around the country and hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, providing more opportunities for men and women who have bravely served their nation.”
Clear Channel also announced today the iHeartRadio Show Your Stripes Alliance, a coalition of American businesses identified as being military-friendly and which have already experienced success in hiring veterans. Clear Channel will support those businesses that hire vets by recognizing them on-air, across its 850 stations and digital platforms as well across its out-of-home properties.
Alliance launch partners include American Airlines, Anheuser-Busch, BNSF Railway, Capital One, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Cisco, Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Comcast and NBCUniversal, Deutsche Bank, Duane Reade, Electronic Arts, Facebook, FedEx, General Electric, General Mills, The Home Depot, jcpenney, JetBlue, Johnson & Johnson, NBA Cares, American Red Cross, Sprint, UPS, Verizon Communications Inc., Waste Management, Walgreens and Wells Fargo.
The goal of the Alliance is to make military-friendly businesses more visible to veterans seeking jobs, and ultimately increase veteran applications for open positions. Clear Channel encourages businesses of all sizes to join the movement by signing up at iHeartRadio’s showyourstripes.org and has set a goal of growing to 100 partners by the end of 2013.