Background >

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government, tasked with investigating and preventing serious crime ranging from terrorism to human trafficking. However, as serious crime becomes more complex, the skillsets required to stay a step ahead of it - and the people required to prevent it - have become more diverse. The problem is, law enforcement is often perceived as a dated and male-dominated industry that uses force over finesse by the younger, more diverse candidates the AFP requires.

Objective >

To combat these misperceptions and position themselves as a progressive career choice for diverse candidates, the AFP repositioned themselves in 2021 as an organisation that ‘outsmarts serious crime with intelligent action’. To better reflect this positioning, we were tasked with creating a recruitment campaign aimed at more diverse and diversely-skilled candidates.

Strategy >

Proof of the AFP’s progressive and impressive achievements lay in their success stories: serious crimes that were stopped not by the run-and-gun actions of armed responders, but by the intelligent action of a more diversely skilled broader team. From catching online predators targeting hundreds of children, to rescuing Australian citizens from international kidnapping groups, these stories were compelling and fascinating. 
The problem was we couldn’t fit these stories into in a 30 second ad.

Traditional media wasn’t equipped to tell in-depth, nuanced stories (which kind of explains the cookier-cutter, generic montage approach to law enforcement recruitment campaigns.)

What’s more, data showed that our desired audience were increasingly disengaging from traditional brand communication.

So, rather than trying to capture attention through traditional media where our audience were tuning out, we instead looked to where they were actively tuning in.

86% of our audience believed that entertainment was a vital need, as important as shelter and internet.*

On top of that, data from 2021 showed that podcasts now reach around 9 million Aussies, which is a 54% year-on-year growth.

Within that listenership, true crime is the third most popular (and fastest growing) podcast genre amongst our audience.
And so we set out to create a recruitment campaign disguised as audio entertainment.

* Vivendi Prosumer Report - ‘The Future of Entertainment’

The idea >

Crime Interrupted was a podcast that de-classified six of the AFP’s most notorious serious criminal investigations, and showcased the unexpected skillsets required to stop them. Each episode uncovered a different AFP operation, whilst diverse AFP investigators revealed just how important their modern skillsets were to the operation’s success. 

To tell these stories compellingly, we partnered with Casefile – Australia’s most popular true

crime podcaster. We conducted audience analysis of true crime podcasts against our desired audience demographics to match recruitment objectives.
Casefile Presents was the perfect partner. The investigative team was not only Australia's top true crime podcaster, but the anonymous host was an ex-police officer: someone well-versed in translating delicate or complex investigation material into entertaining narratives.

To drive repeat engagement, each of the six podcasts was released weekly across all major streaming platforms – Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Castbox, RSS Feed – and linked directly to our recruitment hub.

The Results >

Crime Interrupted resulted in significant upswings in recruitment and brand perception. 

By the second episode, it was Australia’s #2 most popular podcast, and #1 true crime podcast. With over 500,000 listeners, it also broke the Top 10 in NZ and UK podcast charts.

But this chart-topping entertainment 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.

On top of this, 93% of people who listened to the podcast were interested in finding out more about a career in the AFP. 
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 actively engaging for over an hour every week.

The Crime Interrupted recruitment campaign is regarded by the AFP as their most successful campaign in history, and series 2 is already underway.