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. As serious crime evolves and becomes more complex, the skillsets required to stay a step ahead of it and the people required to prevent it have become more diverse.

Problem is, law enforcement has an image problem. They're often seen to use force over finesse, and are considered a relatively dated and male-dominated industry by the very candidates they require. To combat these misperceptions and position themselves as a progressive and fulfilling career for diverse candidates, in 2021 the AFP repositioned themselves 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 diverse and diversely-skilled candidates that the AFP required to tackle complex serious crime.

True crime is one of Australia’s fastest growing genres, particularly amongst our primary desired demographic (women aged 17 – 25). So we turned our recruitment messages into a true crime podcast - creating resonant entertainment in a compelling format, designed to pull listeners in rather than pushing into their lives.

At a time when our audience were disengaging from traditional recruitment communication, Crime Interrupted had potential recruits tuning in to AFP messaging for over an hour every week. Each episode of Crime Interrupted was designed to showcase not only a serious crime, but diverse and unexpected skillsets that were responsible for stopping them, ultimately reframing the AFP as a diverse and progressive career.

The biggest barrier for our target audience was a significant lack of understanding about what the AFP does. They required a brand repositioning, however traditional media couldn't tell the stories that would help reposition us with the nuance required. Cynical about the organisation, our audience were disconnecting from traditional recruitment messaging. So we looked to entertainment channels. Specifically, true crime podcasts, which were popular amongst our desired audience.

To tell our stories compellingly, we needed the right podcast partner. We conducted audience analysis of true crime podcasts against our desired audience demographics to match recruitment objectives.

We also looked at partners who could weave in our recruitment messaging without compromising their own brand.

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.

Working with the Casefile team, we created a six-episode podcast called Crime Interrupted. Each episode delved into a particular, notorious serious crime - from terrorism to sex trafficking - and through an intriguing narrative, showed the diverse skills from diverse candidates required to stop them. Casefile spoke to officers, victims and even criminals to offer a truly compelling picture of a career in the AFP.

To drive repeat engagement, the podcast was released weekly across all the major streaming platforms our target audience frequent – Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Castbox, RSS Feed – and linked directly to our recruitment hub.

Despite the limitations of a $150,000 media budget, Crime Interrupted was the AFP’s most successful campaign in history, resulting in significant recruitment and brand perception upswings.

It became 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 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. Plus 93% of people who listened to the podcast were interested in finding out more about an AFP career.

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 engaging for over an hour every week