Test Soldier/Sailor
Issue 18 | March 2011
Agency
DDB Stockholm AB
Creative Team
Account Director: Thomas Brenemark; Account Manager: Tina Munck/Johanna Tornblom; Web Producer: Sandra Kaludjercic Bergman/Linda Eriksson; Creative Director: Andreas Dahlquist; Art Director: Fredrik Lund, Simon Mogren, Frederik Simonsson; Copywriter: Patrik Dry, Magnus Jakobsson, Linus Ostholm; Original: Patrik Oscarsson
Production Team
Acne Digital
Date
October 2010
Background
There was a time when every young man in Sweden had to do military service. Now, however, the armed forces must compete with every other employer to recruit the best young talent available.
The problem is, how do you make 18-25 year old men and women see the army or navy as an interesting and attractive career opportunity when it is generally regarded as a playground for bullies and dimwits?
Idea
Continuing the campaign thought of ‘Do you have what it takes?’, the Swedish Armed Forces wanted to focus on the abilities of potential recruits to be both mentally agile and physically co-ordinated.
Direct mail was central to the execution in driving traffic to the website, where visitors could try a series of tests designed to challenge them.
The mailing was itself a puzzle that needed to be solved, a large piece of paper which had to be folded in a precise way in order to make visible a code. This code unlocked the website and a further series of tests.
The mailing was effective in weeding out unsuitable candidates in that many people found the puzzle too difficult to solve.
Results
5600 applicants. The goal was 3600.
Our Thoughts
Mail is often more powerful when used in tandem with digital than either medium is on its own, and this is a great example. The pack intrigues and provokes the recipient sufficiently for him (or her) to want to follow the link and continue the experience online.
The important word in that sentence was ‘continue’. The mailing is an integral part of the whole experience in itself rather than just an invitation to go to a website where the fun can begin.
If creativity is about solving problems (and I believe it is) then this is stupendously creative. Because, oh boy, do the Armed Forces have a problem? Almost everyone perceives them as institutions where being stupid is necessary and being a bully is helpful. Added to which, if you do your job properly you have a good chance of being killed.
Amazingly, this campaign has changed, and is continuing to change, those perceptions.