Bairdyblog

Submariners site makes me feel subnormal

 
I really wanted to like this site. Really.

In many ways, it's fantastic. In terms of what it does, it may well be the best ever. Certainly, it beat off tough competition to win its FEMA category in the recent Aussie rec ad awards.

Plus, it confirms all of my theories regarding this type of advertising. (Namely, that the more the western world becomes blighted by actual war and terrorism, the more forces recruitment filches escapist tropes from Hollywood and the games industry.) But I can't like it as much as I want, because I don't quite get it.

Admittedly mine is not the profile that would have topped the list of user journeys at testing stage. But all the same, it's a devil to get your head around. Everywhere you go is a page telling you to wait for something. When you do, the technology takes ages to load. The pages briefing the main game go by so quickly I feel like a moron for not being able to scan them quickly enough.

As for accessing the game itself, it would be easier to get a round at Gleneagles.

Then there's the detail. Even the detail has detail. Want to know how fit you need to be to apply? Here's a pages on that very topic. In fact there's even a video of a bloke telling you about fitness. And here are some illustrations of the exercises you'll need to be able to do. Not sure how to do them? Then watch one of a range of other videos. By which time of course I'm not just out of breath, but my narrative thread has completely gone out of the window.

 

Admittedly, it's immersive. And hats off to anyone trying a sell a career which involves living in a tin can, under the sea, knowing that practically any moment someone might fire a torpedo at you and blast your insides all over the barrier reef. But when I get to copy like this, I don't know whether to give a military or a two-fingered salute:

"Unseen we seek the enemy in Silent Service. We are at the forefront of national defence, we are the vanguard. With skill and resolve we conduct our training and our mission. Courage and tenacity are our greatest weapons. Against all odds, fearless and ferocious we will fight on in our charge to defend the weak."

Blimey. Just like they to used to write in Warlord.

Of course, the best proposition for the armed services is that recruits benefit from the cultural construct that all fighters are noble and desperately sexually alluring to the opposite sex. If you doubt that, see what Oz naval commander Tom Phillips had to say about girls in bikinis helping recruitment. Terrible sexism of course, but perhaps a bit of that on the web site might have helped to keep my interest.

The Best Ever? (Pt II)

Just watched some recruitment films from the LAPD (that's Los Angeles Police Department, in case you've never been to the movies). There's so much testosterone flooding through my system I can hardly type.

If all LAPD means to you is the Rodney King atrocity back in the nineties, then it would appear it's time to reconsider. Because now, seemingly, joining the LAPD is exactly the same as being in your favourite, late-night, deliciously high-octane cop show.

Look at the web site and you'll feel them playing with your head, making as many entertainment references as they can, macho-ing on about TV and Hollywood's LAPD obsession and the importance of taking a 'front row seat on life'. The films themselves follow the pattern of film trailers, with visual and verbal references to the likes of 24, The Wire, Hill Street Blues, and more.

Yes, the idea's been done before, but probably not as well. And probably not in widescreen.

The production standards are pretty breathtaking - helicopters, aerial shots, roads closed for shoot-outs and a legion of pro actors. (Not the LAPD principals, though - Pablo P. Vita and Cassandra Britt Nickerson play themselves.) Wait until the animated logo comes up at the end - that alone possibly cost more than the totality of your last graduate campaign.

Still, do you feel excited? Do you feel engaged by the drawing on of shared cultural references? Do you feel impressed by its formal mimicry of the high standards of contemporary entertainment? Do you want a large popcorn with that? Course you do.

The Best Ever? (Pt I)

About a year ago, a friend of mine from outside of the industry sent me this link with the heading, 'Is this the best rec ad ever'?

It might well be. Probably because it's not really a rec ad. But by not following all the usual conventions, it's all the more powerful.

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

It's for a company called Conected Ventures, and it ran on Vimeo with a simple 'now hiring' line attached.

What makes it good?

1. It has strong propositions which are all the more credible for not being explicitly stated. (Community, Energy, Commitment, Humour, etc.)
2. They did it out of work hours, so they must like each other.
3. It's confident, not needy or whiney.
4. If you're right for them, you get it. If you're not, you don't.
5. It's genuinely surprising, and therefore engaging.
6. The people are attractive, intelligent and effervescent. You want to go out with them, drink with them, maybe even punch them. But they elicit some form of response.
7. You want to share it. (And via the magic of the interweb, you can.)
8. Technically, it's a pretty impressive achievement. (And the first take, apparently.)

Obviously, it's easier to recruit for some fancy-schmancy NYC new media outfit without job specs than it is 'normal' jobs in 'normal' organisations. But there's definitely something to learn here, if only the power of cutting through clutter and trad rec ad crap.

Bet their Diversity Officer wasn't that taken with it, though.