Client: Royal New Zealand Air Force
Agency: Frank Advertising
Website Company: Chrometoaster
Project: Special Ops Vocational Reality Game
Solution: RedDirect
Launched: November 2006
Campaign length: 3 Months
Campaign Website: www.airforcespecialops.co.nz
Background:
The Air Force Special Ops programme was developed as a three-month long, web-based interactive game that challenges, informs, educates, entertains and inspires potential recruits by engaging them in their space, on their terms.
The Special Ops recruitment programme was an intricate combination of training exercise, a test of wits, an insight into today’s Air Force and a real-life nationwide manhunt in which gamers use the web, txt, email, getting out and about to solve the 28 challenges, score points and find the parachutist to win!
Objectives:
- To engage with RNZAF recruitment target segments and encourage the “right” type of applicant to the Air Force.
- To highlight the diversity of careers available within the Air Force, allow users to identify with potential trades for their careers, and direct them towards recruitment.
- To encourage users to have fun and learn about the Air Force, sparking passion and enthusiasm for the RNZAF.
Promotion of Campaign:
- Media Releases
- Television Advertisements
- Radio
- Posters
- Website
- Blog Site
Strategy:
Run The Red worked closely with Frank Advertising and Chrometoaster to ensure that the txt component within the campaign was engaging and encouraged contestants to get involved with all of the 28 challenges.
How it worked:
The main functionality for the txt component was to push out messages to those registered contestants to give them updates on the challenges being released and how the competition was progressing. E.g:
“Special Ops latest Mission Update + Spot Challenges 1-5 now online. C U @ airforcespecialops.co.nz - CPL Lisa Aranui CISTECH”.
For the physical caches (box containing clues and wristbands),which were planted all over the country for Special Op contestants to find, there was also unique codes which they had to txt in to alert RNZAF & Frank Advertising they had found it and collect their points.
Txt was also used as part of one challenge – where people txted in the keyword “CIS” and received a binary code via txt which they had to de-code to win points.
Results:
- Air Force Special Ops is the world’s first vocational reality game!
- Even before any challenge solutions could be submitted, registered challengers numbered well over 1,200.
- In the 24 hours after announcement of active game play, registrations surged to over 2,000 users and after six days of game play with numbers neared 4,000 and climbing.
- As Christmas approached, 4,500 players had taken up the challenge and numbers continued to climb throughout the holiday season with a mid-January count of over 7,500. There were over 7,900 registrants at the end of game play.
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