Google has become engrained in our everyday lives. But it’s also not as smart as we think it is, and this campaign proves it.

the LOST IN TRANSLATION campaign was not only created using Google Translate, it literally wrote our ads by mistakenly translating phrases we fed it, but it also helped voice the campaign.

We then made use of innovative media placement as our audio ads ran on Spotify and bore striking similarity to the popular tracks which the audience was used to listening to, albeit with glaring mistakes that made them more disruptive.

The Australian Defence Force is one of the largest recruiters in Australia. But some roles are harder to fill than others, such as Cryptologic Linguists in the Navy whose primary role is intercept and analyse foreign languages. We needed to recruit the best talent to join the Navy and apply for this role, but at the same time tell people what the role entails in an engaging and relevant way.

We enlisted A.I. to help us recruit humans as Cryptologic Linguists. While A.I. can play a big role in the modern workforce, surprisingly it doesn’t always get it right when it comes to analysing and translating from one language to another.

This campaign takes those mistakes and highlights them. Using one of the world’s most popular A.I. the idea takes real, mistranslated phrases, movie quotes and song lyrics and turns them into advertising.

Artificial intelligence is helping to progress humanity in ways never thought possible. It’s making complex tasks easier than ever. But the flip side is that human occupations are at stake.

More than 7 million Australians are at risk of having their jobs either automated out of existence or augmented by robots and artificial intelligence in the next 15 years, data modelling commissioned by the Australian Computer Society has found.

This can be a daunting proposition for job seekers, one that’s exacerbated by the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Its why we chose to show people that the role of a Cryptologic Linguist wasn’t at threat of being replaced by a machine and that it’s a stable role with rewarding career progression.

Not only did A.I. help write the ads every time we clicked translate, but by using A.I.’s text to voice function, it helped voice our campaign through audio ads as well as video posts on social.

The campaign was launched in Oct 2020 to Nov 2020 with audio ads on Spotify and Soundcloud, social films and statics across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and digital posters at DFR recruitment centres.

The campaign was originally intended to run in two bursts, but after just one the Navy achieved their role quota.

• 472% increase in online users to dedicated job page

• Applications up 1140% year on year

Importantly for the Navy, this campaign created a stronger connection to a younger audience, introducing cleverness of language that will resonate for years to come. And for Australia, these new applicants will ensure a vital part of our Defence Force stays functioning at its peak.