Back to Work1st Battalion 9th Marines Association
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Reconnect
A campaign designed to help 1/9 veterans reconnect with the people, memories, and brotherhood that were already part of them.
Brand
1st Battalion 9th Marines Association
Type
Campaign
Year
2026
Disciplines
Creative Strategy
Integrated Campaigns
Graphic Design
The Challenge
The 1/9 Association had a strong history and a deeply shared identity, but participation was concentrated among older veterans and long-time members.
The challenge was reaching younger veterans, especially those from the GWOT era, without losing the history, legacy, and traditions that made 1/9 meaningful in the first place.
Context
Many legacy organizations struggle to communicate in ways that feel relevant to younger veterans. For 1/9, that created both a risk and an opportunity.
The Association already had something many organizations did not:
a deeply specific shared identity.
The challenge was to make that identity feel active, current, and worth returning to.
The Insight
A Living Brotherhood
When a 1/9 veteran sees the unit emblem or hears the name The Walking Dead, they recognize something in themselves. They may not know the veteran wearing it or have served in the same era, but they’ll still stop and strike up a conversation. There is a sense of pride in being part of the 1/9 legacy, and that identity stays with every Marine and Corpsman who served with the unit.
Reconnect was about reactivating that identity and the sense of belonging that came with it.
Strategy
Use shared identity to make reconnection feel natural.
Rather than promote the reunion as just another event, the campaign framed it as a return to something veterans already belonged to. Messaging centered on camaraderie, shared experience, service, legacy, and the identity of 1/9 as The Walking Dead.
The Big Idea
Reconnect
Reconnect turns a shared past into a reason to come back together.
The campaign speaks to something many veterans already feel: the people may be scattered and the years may have passed, but the bond is still there.
The message is simple: take the first step back toward each other.
Creative Direction
The visual system combines archival and personal photography and video with the Association’s existing identity. Real people, memories, places, and events give the campaign something familiar to reconnect with.
The tone is direct, personal, and conversational. It should feel less like an organization speaking to its members and more like the Association is in the room with the guys, talking about the people they knew, the places they served, and the moments they still remember.
The System
Social. Social content kept the 1/9 identity active between major announcements. Real veterans, archival photos, reunion moments, unit history, and stories from across generations gave people reasons to reconnect with the community before being asked to register.
Direct mail. Print brought those stories into a more personal setting. The Proud Warrior used real people, photography, history, and first-person stories to connect generations and show that the brotherhood was still active.
Print advertising. Advertising in Leatherneck Magazine extended the campaign beyond the Association’s existing audience and placed Reconnect in front of the broader Marine Corps community.
Event experience. The campaign continued once veterans arrived. The reunion program, signage, photography, and environmental graphics carried the same identity and message through the week, reinforcing the idea that they were returning to something they already belonged to.
Outcome
200
Reunion attendees, largest since 2018
398K
Social impressions
21.8K
Social interactions
Reconnect moved beyond awareness and helped turn shared identity into participation.
The 2026 reunion brought together 200 attendees, while the stories coming out of the event extended the campaign to veterans far beyond the room.
From 1 August through 6 September, tracked social channels generated roughly 398,000 impressions and 21,800 interactions — about 331,000 impressions on Facebook and 59,000 on Instagram. Reunion Reel placements drew more than 315,000 views. Facebook grew to 2,909 followers after acquiring 2,659 in the period; Instagram reached 1,451 and grew by more than 26%.
A message that traveled. One reunion video featuring the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps became the strongest-performing content of the campaign: approximately 215,000 Facebook views and 14,800 interactions, 38,700 Instagram views, 2,776 likes, 196 shares, 161 saves and 60 comments. The message reinforced the strategy directly — “The Walking Dead is alive and well.”
The strongest response was behavioral. Veterans publicly expressed pride in having served with 1/9 and re-identified with The Walking Dead. Others asked how to participate or contribute. Senior Marine officers and enlisted leaders reached out about ways to support the Association.
That is something impressions alone could not show: the campaign was strengthening belonging, not simply generating attention.