The Pilot
The need for pilots within the Danish Defence is rising. Even though there is increased demand, the number of applications has been declining in recent years. The young audience is disqualifying themselves ahead of the admission due to misperceptions. They believe it takes a superhuman to become a pilot– which is not true. To overcome this misperception, Ogilvy was brought in to assist the Danish Defence with a campaign promoting the pilot’s program.- Read moreWe needed to recruit more suitable candidates for the admission program. But where do you start when it is perceived to be an impossible mission to become a pilot? We needed to reach a target audience consisting of young adults in their early twenties. To do so, we need to get them inspired and eager to join the pilot’s program. Along the way, we would be able to paint a new picture of the pilot’s program as being obtainable as long as you contain the right drive. Pilots are not super-human but ordinary people. This was a key message in the recruitment campaign, but we needed to communicate it interestingly. But our main challenge was to overcome the binding terms that followed the pilot’s program. The aspiring pilots will commit themselves to 12 years of service in the Danish Defence. This is a major barrier for the younger generations as they organize their life around flexibility to accommodate a dynamic way of living. Furthermore, the job is offered in Jylland which is considered another barrier as the younger generations move towards metropolises and away from the outskirts. Our target audience consists of young adults in the early twenties. To captivate their attention, we took advantage of their FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). We encouraged them to take the chance because it would be a shame to miss the opportunity and regret never taking the chance when you had the opportunity. We took some inspiring stories from the real world and wrapped them in an engaging format. We got down-to-earth people who already worked as a pilot – or soon to become pilots – to tell their emotional stories about the dream of becoming a pilot. We focused on the soft values and finished the film with a question: “Are you dreaming of becoming a pilot?”. Who knows? Maybe you will become the next pilot in the Danish Defence.
