Australia – To reach a new generation of recruits and continue to land their ‘A Step Ahead’ positioning, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government, has launched a new podcast series that takes listeners deep behind the scenes of some of the country’s most involved investigations.
The series, which was created in collaboration with creative agency Host/Havas and Australian podcast Casefile, opens the vault on some of the AFP’s most complex investigations, including interviews with the officers responsible for cracking the cases and some insight into the techniques used to unravel the crimes.
Titled ‘Crime Interrupted’, the podcast is supported by a 30-second trailer for the first episode, created in partnership with the Emmy Award-winning director of the True Detective main title sequence, Patrick Clair.
Host/Havas said that the series is a compelling alternative to creating stock standard police recruitment ads to engage the next generation of officers for the AFP, with a focus on women, people from diverse backgrounds, and First Nations people.
Marina Simoncini, Australian Federal Police’s manager of the culture and communications branch, believes that the podcast series created with Host/Havas takes an unexpected approach to recruitment.
She further shared that the six hours of content will not only intrigue and entertain, but it will show potential recruits—people who may not have previously considered a career with the AFP—what they can expect.
“As we’ve shown through the podcast, we need people from all kinds of backgrounds with all kinds of skills to help keep us a step ahead,” said Simoncini.
Meanwhile, Jon Austin, Host/Havas’ executive creative director, shared that when it came to recruiting for the AFP, they didn’t need to hyperbolise or dramatise as the most compelling reasons come obviously with every case story heard from officers.
“What a privilege to be able to work not just with the officers behind these stories, but with the likes of Casefile and Patrick to bring them to life so powerfully,” said Austin.
The podcast series was launched last 4 February 2022, and is available on AFP’s YouTube.