Lost in Translation
Defence Force Recruitment
Issue 59 | June 2021
Agency
VMLY&R Melbourne
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Paul Nagy Executive Creative Director: Jake Barrow Associate Creative Director: Shane Geffen Associate Creative Director: Kieran Moroney
Production Team
Designer: Fabio Lima Editor: Leigh Cooke Senior Integrated Producer: Aaron Rocca Producer: Catherine Bonny Baxter Sounds: Paul Baxter
Other Credits
Managing Partner: Sarah Bailey Managing Partner: Jon Kenyon Senior Account Director: Belinda Bassingthwaighte Account Manager: Alek Aikman Account Manager: Gabrielle Sandal
Date
October 2020
Background
The Australian Defence Force is one of the largest recruiters in Australia. But some roles are harder to fill than others, such as Cryptologic Linguists in the Navy whose primary role is to intercept, analyse and translate foreign languages. DFR needed to recruit the best talent to join the Navy and apply for this role, but at the same time tell people what the role entails in an engaging and relevant way.
Idea
A.I. was enlisted to help recruit people to the Cryptologic Linguist role. While A.I. can play a big role in the modern workforce, surprisingly it doesn’t always get it right when it comes to analysing and translating from one language to another. This campaign takes those mistakes and highlights them. Using one of the world’s most popular A.I. the idea takes real, mistranslated phrases, movie quotes and song lyrics and turns them into advertising.
Results
After a month of the campaign being in market including additional sales activity, DFR achieved significant improvement in applications for the Cryptologic Linguist role: - 472% increase in traffic to the job page. - Applications were up 1140% year on year. Importantly for the Navy, this campaign created a stronger connection to a younger audience, introducing cleverness of language that will resonate for years to come. And for Australia, these new applicants will assist in ensuring a vital part of the Australian Defence Force capability is delivered.