The One Show
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Category
Online / Branded Podcast
Annual ID
OS23_RA023M
About the Work
The Australian Federal Police were struggling to recruit younger, more diverse and diversely-skilled candidates. And so, rather than traditional recruitment communication, which our audience were tuning out of, we identified where they were actively tuning in. True crime is one of Australia’s fastest growing genres, particularly amongst our primary desired demographic (women aged 17 – 25). So we turned our recruitment messages into a true crime podcast - creating resonant entertainment in a compelling format, designed to pull listeners in rather than pushing into their lives.
To tell our stories compellingly, we needed the right partner. We conducted audience analysis of true crime podcasts against our desired audience demographics to match recruitment objectives. We also looked at partners who could weave in recruitment messaging without compromising their brand.
Casefile was the perfect partner. The investigative team was not only Australia's top true crime podcaster, but the host was an ex-police officer: someone well-versed in translating delicate/complex investigation material into entertaining narratives.
Working with the Casefile team, we created a six-part podcast called Crime Interrupted.
Each episode delved into a particular, notorious serious crime - from terrorism to sex trafficking - and through an intriguing narrative, showed the diverse skills from diverse candidates required to stop them. Casefile spoke to officers, victims and even criminals to offer a truly compelling picture of a career in the AFP.
Crime Interrupted is regarded by the AFP as their most successful campaign in history.
It was Australia’s #2 podcast, and #1 true crime podcast. With over 500,000 listeners, it also broke the Top 10 in NZ and UK charts.
More importantly, it also proved an effective recruitment tool.
Visits to the recruitment hub increased by 114%. It led to a 40% increase in applications from women, and the proportion of women applications as a percentage rose by 35%, the highest ever on record. 93% of people who listened to the podcast were interested in finding out more about an AFP career.
At a time when our audience were hitting the skip button to avoid traditional advertising, Crime Interrupted leveraged the power of entertainment, and had potential candidates engaging for over an hour every week.
2023 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
Credits
Agency
Host/Havas / Sydney
Music / Sound Production Company
Casefile / Sydney
Art Director
Shaun Thomson
Copywriter
Adam Smith
Creative Director
Matt Ennis
Executive Creative Director
Jon Austin
Strategist
Will Moore
Business Managing Partner
Ant Moore
Chief strategy Officer
Olly Taylor
Head Of Production
Alistair Ferrier
Senior Account Manager
Bianca Musico
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