Defence Force Recruiting (DFR) will leverage the many stories told by Navy people with the launch their major advertising campaign for Navy recruitment on March 19.
The campaign, aptly named ‘Live a Story Worth Telling’, seeks to inspire the next generation of officers and sailors by visually communicating some of the memorable experiences enjoyed by current serving members in the modern Navy.
The Navy Brand Manager for DFR Ms Anjali Bakaya said current serving Navy people inspired the strategy for the new recruiting campaign.
“Every Navy person that I’ve had the pleasure to meet has had so many exciting and interesting stories to tell,” Ms Bakaya said.
“The first thing you notice when you work alongside Defence personnel is that their lived experiences are unlike anything you’d encounter anywhere else.
“They are filled with laughter, joy, sometimes tears and excitement, which fills them up every time they narrate their stories.
“This campaign is first and foremost a testament to these stories, and an ode to the impact each and every one of our serving members have made in Australia, the region and around the world.”
Ms Bakaya said there was no better way to inspire the next generation of Navy officers and sailors than to introduce them to the people and stories that will inspire them.
“We want to give the target audience a clear, single-minded reason to join the Navy, and the new campaign strategically does that by highlighting the diversity of life experiences that a life in the service has to offer – more so than any other job,” she said.
She said working with Navy to create the campaign made an impact on her personally.
“For someone coming in from the private sector, not knowing much about Navy, to being so inspired by these human stories that I’d like my toddler to one day consider a career in the service – that’s a big leap,” she said.
“I’m in awe of the resilience and humility of every single person I’ve met.”
Lieutenant Commander Sarah West, from the Navy Recruiting Liaison Team, worked closely with DFR’s Navy Brand Team, as well as the advertising agency VMLY&R and production company Division, to coordinate Navy’s support of the project.
She said she hoped the campaign would not only demonstrate the value of a Navy career to prospective recruits, but also promote pride within the service.
“The campaign has been carefully designed to inspire new members into service and help grow Navy’s workforce by showing recreated scenes of actual operations, exercises and activities that our people have experienced in recent years, leveraging from people’s memories to add authenticity to how we communicate life in the Navy,” she said.
“But while recruiting is the primary objective, I really hope the campaign will also make current and past serving members feel proud of the contributions they’ve made, the things they’ve achieved, the shipmates they’ve served with and ultimately of their service.
“Our people truly are the most valuable recruiting tool we have, and I hope the campaign inspires them to share their ‘stories worth telling’ and inspire the next generation to follow in their footsteps.”
More than 90 Navy people were involved ‘on-camera’ in the production of the new advertising campaign, with additional members providing asset coordination support behind the scenes, including staff at Fleet Headquarters and Maritime Operations.
HMA Ships Parramatta, Supply, Hobart, Warramunga, Adelaide and Waller, 816 Squadron and Australian Clearance Diving Team Four also supported filming, which occurred in five locations across Australia.
