2013 IAB Awards | Best in Show Winner & Mobile Platform Winner
Mobile Medic
Agency: GPY&R Melbourne
Client: Defence Force Recruiting
The Problem
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is on a permanent mission to find high quality candidates, with Medical Officers being a critical role for recruiters to fill. In order to drive applicants, the Defence University Scholarship (DUS) was set up but application numbers were significantly below expectations.
The Solution
In the civilian world medical students more often than not have to wait up to nine years to get ‘their hands dirty’ and apply their skills. This is a real source of frustration for medical graduates whereas Defence University Sponsorship students are empowered to practice ‘hands on’ medicine straight after graduation. Thus the campaign focus was to dramatise the fact that a career in the ADF would enable graduates to apply their medical knowledge from day one.
To reach the time-poor and highly intelligent audience, GPY&R Melbourne created the world’s first medically diagnosable advertising: ‘Mobile Medic’. Less of an ad and more of an immersive medical test, it paired a mobile app with outdoor creative and online microsites using image recognition layered into Augmented Reality technology to challenge participants by plunging them into diagnosing a true-to-life set of medical emergencies and enquiring into the DUS.
The Results
Mobile Medic has been one of the ADF’s most successful campaigns. In the first two months, the app was downloaded over 8,000 times, 64% of eligible students reported considering a career in the ADF and 71% who participated in the road shows requested more information. All in all it exceeded campaign expectations and delivered on the key objective of the campaign; to drive positive awareness of the scholarship and to inspire prospective students to pursue a career in the ADF.
