Title	FEMALE RECRUITMENT
Brand	DEFENCE FORCES
Product/Service	FEMALE RECRUITMENT
Category	A02. Data-Driven Targeting
Entrant	ROTHCO Dublin, IRELAND
Idea Creation	ROTHCO Dublin, IRELAND

Name	Company	Position
Ray Swan	Rothco	Art Director
Emma Sharkey	Rothco	Copywriter
Emer Howard	Rothco	Strategist
Emer Fitzgerald	Rothco	Connection Strategist
Paul Power	Rothco	Multimedia Producer
Katie Oslizlok	Rothco	Account Director
Emma Ellis	Rothco	Senior Producer
Karina Cotter	Rothco	Assistant Producer
Darach McHugh	Rothco	Motion Graphics
Martin Osbourne	Progressive Productions	Cameraman

The Campaign

11,700 young Irish women are destined for a job in a supermarket, their social circumstances having ruled out college and career as viable options. 11,799 team players whose brilliance on the field, pitch, and court isnt valued in the real world. Who feel they are only at their very best for the eight hours per week when they are training and playing. Yet whose values as an athlete and team-mate are a perfect match with the Defence Forces: physical and moral courage, selflesness, loyalty, respect. The opportunity lay in them not knowing that there is a career that would value them for what makes them great as a team player; that they can get paid for what they are good at. Our idea was to make those who fit realise that there is a job out there that they have been training for all their lives... they just didn’t know it.

The Minister Of Defence set an objective of increasing the number of females in the Defence Forces by 50% by 2020 (from 6% to 12%). For this specific brief, we were tasked with doubling the applicants, year on year. (number of female applicants in 2015 = 35, of which 29 failed to show up for fitness testing). When we crunched the data and found a ripe, data-driven audience, we felt ambitious enough to strive to net 577 qualified leads – those who would be most likely to apply and succeed. Assuming the number of male applicants would remain the same as previous years, 577 committed female recruits would meet the 2020 gender quota. We knew that if we reflected the mindset and fit of the audience, that they would badge and tag others who would be a perfect fit for a career in the Defence Forces. And after just two weeks, we have not only smashed the clients goal (+50% year on year), we have met and surpassed our quota-based goal of 577.T Three weeks in and armed only with a media spend of only €750.00 on Facebook, we managed to hit the magic 577, increase annual applicants by +65%

With a budget of just €20k, we were fighting extremely long odds when tasked with increasing female applicants to the Irish Army (62,857/1). Women make up only 6% of the Irish Defence Forces, and last year, only 34 applied (of which only 6 turned up to the first day of fitness testing). We discovered that FIT was the barrier – that the majority assumed they wouldn’t be the right fit, thereby ruling out a career in the Army. With sniper-like data mining we discovered a qualified minority – those most likely to apply, and most likely to succeed.

Our first task lay in understanding the barrier to application. Through a national online poll (via Ignite Research), we learned that the Defence Forces simply isnt on the radar for the majority as a career option (74%). And for those who are aware, the vast majority rule themselves out owing to an assumption that they wont be a good fit! It was clear that we needed a smarter approach. We needed to be as efficient as possible with our budget. And that meant not talking to everyone. We set about finding qualified leads – those most likely to apply, and most likely to succeed. Through data mining (via TGI) we narrowed the total universe of age-suitable Irish women from 1.8m to just 11,700 qualified leads – young, futureless, active sportswomen who only felt accomplished and valued on the pitch, field, and court. And once we found them, we built our creative solution on the key audience insight – that they wished they could be valued in life for what they are valued for on the sports field.