
VRecruitment
Defence Force Recruiting
Issue 45 | December 2017
Agency
Havas Sydney
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors Seamus Higgins, Stuart Turner Art Director Helen King Copywriter Alex Bolderoff Digital Creative Directors Gustavo Vampre, Josh Bryer Head of Design Darren Cole Senior Designer Nic Adamovich Junior Designers Amanda Picman, Michael Macgregor
Production Team
Production Company Finch Director of Applied Technology Emad Tahtouh Development Lead / Game Design Hamish Pain Visual Lead / Game Design Andrew Timms Producer Hazel Gibson Technology Production Assistant Cara Szabo Senior Applied Technologist Patrick Barnes Developer Levi Jacobsen 3D Artist / layout Benjamin Bray 3D Artist / Animation James Hurlock Concept Artist Tyler Hinde VFX Artist / Animation Jonte Wendt VFX & Concept Artist Quade Biddle Sound Design Nylon Studios Sound Sonar Print Retouching Manifold
Date
July 2017
Background
To maintain its capabilities in line with innovations in technology, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) needed to keep recruiting smart, young people.
The problem was the next generation didn't see the military as a smart career and they ignored all communications through mainstream media.
The challenge was to create a new way to serve them information they were actually interested in.
Idea
A bespoke, true VR experience was created, a gamified experience that tracked the player's moves to serve him or her personalised, real-time job recommendations.
To capture meaningful data and to make sure the experience felt compellingly real, every element of the experience was built from scratch with help from the military.
Players led a full-scale disaster relief simulation set on a devastated island after a Category 5 cyclone. As they learned about the game, it learned about them, making unique job recommendations based on how they played.
Behavioural data was analysed in real-time. Players were assessed for *risk assessment, *task prioritisation and *problem solving among other qualities.
Thus someone indexing highly in multi-tasking would be served the role of Air Traffic Controller.
Results
The business target was to reach the target audience at university trade shows and career expos and get them to the start the process of joining the Australian Defence Force. Thanks to the immersive use of VR technology, those expectations were exceeded.
- 73% of respondents felt more positive about a career in the ADF.
- 92% had better understanding of the ADF.
- And, importantly, there was a 300% increase in Expressions Of Interest forms.
Our Thoughts
Mark Ritson, the celebrated Australian marketing guru, has written in Marketing Week that VR is flash-in-the-pan "spangly new shit".
I hate to disagree with someone I usually agree with but there are already 98 companies making VR headsets.
There wouldn't be such large numbers piling in if they thought VR was just a passing fad. It is still pretty new and most normal people still haven't experienced it. When they do, they are almost always amazed. My bet is that at the university fairs and careers expos, when the students pulled on the headset, the experience blew them away because it was so utterly involving and absorbing.
The subtle (or maybe not so subtle) message is, if you want a career at the cutting edge of innovation, we're already there.