Case Study: Royal Australian Navy boosts recruitment and fills cryptologic linguist roles with VMLY&R and AI

Royal Australian Navy boosts applications 1140% with WPP

The Royal Australian Navy faced a challenge in recruiting for highly specialized roles, specifically cryptologic linguists. The vendor WPP, through its agency VMLY&R, was engaged to help attract the best talent for these difficult-to-fill positions.

WPP's solution was the "Lost in Translation" campaign, which used AI to prove its own shortcomings in accurately translating language. By feeding a popular AI translation tool movie quotes and song lyrics, the campaign highlighted the errors to demonstrate the navy's ongoing need for human linguists. This strategy resulted in a 1140% year-on-year increase in applications, filling all open roles, and a 472% rise in traffic to the jobs page.

Royal Australian Navy