General Dynamics Electric Boat
DesignDigitalRecruitmentStrategyWeb
FINALIST PROPOSAL — NOT A CLIENT ENGAGEMENT
When Electric Boat set out to recruit 8,000 new employees by the end of 2026, Miranda Creative — a 38-year, 30-person agency just minutes up the road — made the final round of a national agency search built for firms many times our size. We didn’t win the contract. We built a working recruitment platform anyway, and it’s some of the best work we’ve ever produced.
The Challenge
Electric Boat’s recruitment goal was ambitious: support the hiring of 8,000 new employees by the end of 2026 — roughly 14 people a day, every working day. Reaching that number meant more than impressions. Electric Boat needed a clear, measurable recruitment system built to reach new audiences, cut applicant friction, and convert interest into completed applications.
Our research surfaced barriers discouraging applicants, attrition affecting workforce stability, communities the existing campaign wasn’t reaching, and a gap between campaign traffic and qualified candidates. The real challenge was building a recruitment experience that met candidates where they already were, answered their questions fast, and made the next step feel worth taking.
The Strategy
Electric Boat issued its RFP at the close of the year and gave finalists 11 working days to develop initial concepts. We treated the assignment as a web-first recruitment challenge from day one.
At the center of our proposal: a staged, fully functional careers website built to turn a set of disconnected touchpoints into one guided applicant journey, with the speed, clarity, and SEO to support campaign-specific landing pages and stronger conversion from visitor to applicant.
Our campaign platform, Build Your Future. Build Submarines., tied Electric Boat’s role in national defense to the personal value of a stable, future-building career. The message was built to run across web, out-of-home, digital, video, social, and community outreach — reaching skilled-trades candidates, career changers, veterans, early-career workers, parents, educators, and communities that hadn’t previously seen Electric Boat as an accessible career path.
To make that authentic fast, we turned to people we already knew. In partnership with Norwich Free Academy, we filmed real students — recent and soon-to-be Electric Boat employees — telling their own stories. We shot original footage on the floor at Collins and Jewell, a longtime Electric Boat subcontractor, to capture the trade itself. None of it required a casting call. It required four decades of relationships in eastern Connecticut.
That work moved us into the final round and a second pitch. For that presentation, we built a detailed website mock-up and brought local partnerships to the table, including pre-approved outdoor messaging at a high-traffic former mall property and a new relationship with one of Connecticut’s largest labor associations.
The Work
Video & 30 Second Spots
Turning to the community we know so well, we created authentic video content featuring three Norwich Free Academy alumni now working — or about to work — at Electric Boat, sharing their stories on confidence, independence, and opportunity, alongside a parent-to-parent spot aimed at families weighing an entry-level decision. These 30-second pieces came together in partnership with NFA and 86 Media, with original b-roll filmed on-site at Collins and Jewell, a valued subcontractor for “The Boat.”
Every relationship behind this campaign already existed. A long-standing Miranda Creative client gave us a direct line to parents and students across Connecticut’s education system — a trusted messenger, not a new one. A statewide skilled-trades association confirmed interest in cross-promoting Electric Boat’s openings well beyond Connecticut’s borders. And a small group of the state’s most recognized workforce-development leaders agreed to advise on the campaign before we’d signed a single contract.
Traditional and Out-of-Home
Billboards, digital boards, and a bus wrap featuring real Electric Boat employees under one line — Build Your Future — extended for experienced trades audiences as Build on Your Experience and Upgrade Your Trade.
Audio Spots
Entry-level and skilled-trades :30 scripts written for radio and streaming, sharing the sound bed used in the TV/OTT commercial video work. Listen to Eric (male) or Melissa (female) share the value propositions in just 30 seconds.
Entry Level
Skilled Level
Digital & Social
Display, retargeting, and paid social built around the video library, testimonial content shaped for Instagram and TikTok Reels, and a plan to identify licensed-trades audiences already active on social platforms. From search to social — and everything in between, we find potential employees wherever they leave digital footprints.
Digital
Social Reels
“The most creative wins. Time just needs to catch up with us.”
– Maria Miranda, CEO/Founder, Miranda Creative
The Results
We advanced to the final round of a national agency search, competing against firms many times our size. The website prototype was the centerpiece of our presentation, because it showed — rather than described — how strategy, creative, user experience, and conversion planning work together.
While Electric Boat didn’t choose us for this engagement, a 30-person agency from Norwich, Connecticut made the final round of a search built for national players. We also came to realize that decades of relationships defined our real strength — a school community gave up a Sunday during the holiday week to film with us, a manufacturer opened its floor on short notice, and a handful of statewide organizations said yes before there was a contract to sign. That’s #winning.
So, while this post and case study are not an announcement of a new and amazing client, we prefer to think of it as a preview of what’s to come. Until then, to the 8,000 new employees arriving at “The Boat” this year, we look forward to witnessing you “build submarines, while building your future.”