NZ Police’s thought-provoking recruitment campaign via Ogilvy & Mather NZ goes global
Would you walk past or stop to help? A young boy foraging for food in a central city rubbish bin has captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers around the world in a new recruitment drive campaign for the New Zealand Police, created by Ogilvy & Mather New Zealand.
A series of five videos featuring real-life scenarios have been captured exploring issues police officers deal with daily including alcohol-related incidents, mental health, at risk youth and safety on our roads.
In the first video a young actor in a busy city street is seen eating out of a rubbish bin. The video has now reached more than three million Facebook feeds, received more than 800,000 views and more than 30,000 likes, shares and comments since launch along with media coverage in New Zealand and as far afield as Spain, China, USA, UK and Ireland.
Says Regan Grafton, executive creative director, Ogilvy & Mather NZ: “10 years ago an elderly man was beaten and left lying unconscious on the pavement in an inner city carpark however, this wasn’t the disturbing part of the story. The disturbing part was that it took three days before someone cared enough to check to see if he was OK. That story upset me because I couldn’t believe this could happen in our country.
“So, with this in mind, we devised a campaign idea that would do two things: attract the right kind of people into the NZ Police and hopefully, remind everyone of the importance of a sense of community and of caring for each other.”
The second video in the series launched last night, with an equally compelling scenario featuring a man collapsing on the sidewalk of a main road in Auckland. Again, dozens of pedestrians pass and even walk on the road to avoid him before two men stop and show concern for his wellbeing.
Says Karen Jones, deputy chief executive: public affairs, NZ Police: “The approach we have taken is new and different and links strongly with our Police value of empathy.
“It helps us tell a compelling story about the special type of person who chooses to be a police officer. And at the same time reach out to like-minded people in the community to join us.”
Deployed online and via social media, then by more traditional media over the coming months, the campaign is aimed at 18-29 year olds, in particular Maori, Pasifika, Chinese, Indian, Latin American, African and Middle Eastern people to better represent the diversity of Kiwi communities. Attracting more female recruits is another objective of the campaign.
Visit the website: www.newcops.co.nz.
Client: NZ Police
Product: NZ Police Recruitment
Deputy Chief Executive Public Affairs: Karen Jones
Head of Brand and Engagement: James Whitaker
Senior Marketing Advisor: Chandrika Kumaran
Senior Digital Producer: Linda Krug
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather New Zealand
Executive Creative Director: Regan Grafton
Creative Group Head: Darran Wong Kam
Senior Writer: Paul Hankinson
Junior Creatives: Kieran Beck, Matthew Knight
Planning Director: Ben Fielding
General Manager: Christina Mossaidis
Account Manager: Joel Walden
Media Director: Denelle Joyce
Social Strategist: Mike Adly
Senior Designer: Danny Carlsen
Chief Digital Officer: Paul Pritchard
Digital Producer: Janine Johnston
Creative Technologist: Ajay Murthy
Studio: Dave Preece
BTS Filming & Retouching: Jamie Wright
TV Producer: Kate Rhodes
Film Production Company: Social@Ogilvy and Made
Director: Oliver Maisey
Producer: Phil Liefting
DOP: Simon Temple
Editor: Gonzalo Deza, Gary Sims
Post Supervision: Martin Spencer
Colour Grader: Ben Marshall
Music Composition: Liquid Studios
Ethnic Consultants: Michael Jones and Jade Te Uri Karaka
12 Comments
Nice one Kieran!!!
Failed to mention where the actual idea came from though https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5CwCvpEMEJU
incredibly effective, perfectly relevant campaign to recruit the right sort of people to police new zealand. (hopefully a very different breed to the douche canoe popo prowlers who keep giving me speeding tickets).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CwCvpEMEJU
Done
… it’s a shame this has been shot absolutely terribly and is about 30 seconds too long.
Looks like the two comments that don’t even respond to the evidence of where this idea was stolen from, are from the agency that has uploaded it.
This ‘idea’ originated in Social Psychology in the 60’s. Just google ‘bystander effect video’. Maybe we should focus less on who ‘originated’ the idea and more on how fit for purpose it is, and the level of engagement it’s generated.
I think this has been wonderfully shot how did they hide those cameras and get so close to the people? It is a very intimate portrait of NZ streets.
And you just happen to think of that very term ‘Bystander effect’ when looking at the brief, these are juniors mate, the first thought is to go to Youtube where most juniors ideas come from ideas come from now, then put their clients logo on it.
Know why pedestrians aren’t intervening? Because they can see a child wearing make-up and a “hidden” camera crew over the road. People KNOW it’s a cheap stunt by an agency exploiting real-NZ problems to win pretentious awards (dildos).
mark. if you try to take your brain outside of the advertising shoebox and your own evidently small and unfulfilled world, if this campaign makes one kiwi bend down and help someone – or even join the police (for the right reasons), or make existing police officers proud of what they do, then that’s a wonderful thing, no?