MSN Euro Creative Awards 2007, bronze
Research identified that potential recruits had a very superficial understanding of what a career in the Royal Navy might actually be like. The prevailing image that they had was of a life "a grey ship floating on a grey sea." But in actuality a career in the Royal Navy can be rich and varied, with over thirty five different types of job on offer, at sea, under sea (in the submarine service), on land in logistics support and in the air, in the Fleet Air Arm.
The communications objectives therefore were to humanise the Royal Navy and bring to life the hundreds of opportunities within it. The creative strategy was to use real people showing how they did ordinary accessible jobs, but in extraordinary circumstances.
The digital strategy sought firstly to demonstrate the breadth of opportunities available within the Royal Navy and secondly to bring to life and dramatise particular roles within the Royal Navy. Use was made of online format advertising, user generated content and a dynamic website to create a community around the Royal Navy and bring the real people from within the Royal Navy to the consumer. Through the use of interactive and visually stimulating creative executions, the two phases of advertising paint an altogether more dramatic and holistic picture of life in the Royal Navy. The media strategy complements these strong executions by placing relevant ads in sites relevant to 16-24's when they are actively looking for a job or when they are just enjoying themselves. For example our "Shoot" execution where your cursor becomes a gun has been a real hit with young people on gaming sites.