There have been a number of excellent agency-client partnerships producing fantastic work in the past year, but we couldn’t go past the New Zealand police and Ogilvy given the consistently high standard of work they’ve produced together in the last few years. The 2018 New Zealand Police recruitment video was the best yet – topical and humorous while also holding on to its integrity. StopPress spoke with Ogilvy executive creative director Lisa Fedyszyn.
How long has Ogilvy been working with the New Zealand Police?
Ogilvy has been working with the New Zealand Police for three years.
We are forever hearing the word trust used when talking about client-agency partnerships. What does this mean to you?
Being just as interested in, and committed to the business goals of your client as your client. If you have the same goals, the same measurements of success, then you’re in it together as a team – and a good team is built on trust. Once you have that trust it’s so important not to stuff it up. You have no excuses and nowhere to hide – the work needs to be great.
A great success of Ogilvy’s partnership with New Zealand Police has been the recruitment videos – what was the brief given for these and how did you respond?
The New Zealand Police needed to attract a diverse range of recruits, that really reflected the people of New Zealand. We needed to talk to all New Zealanders equally, calling on all community-minded people to consider a career with the New Zealand Police.
We did this by taking an existing platform – police recruitment videos. For the most part these are quite functional, but often forget who they want to attract, and tend to just show what they already are.
We just wanted to share all the information but in an entertaining way that reflected the type of recruits we wanted and how exciting a career with the police could be.
Last year, we found out that many potential recruits had questions about joining the police but no one to ask, so we changed tact a little and used the recruitment video to create a campaign about answering the public’s questions.
Without working closely with the New Zealand Police, it would be challenging to accurately realise the insights and behaviour we needed to affect. The last two years, year on year out, have seen the largest number of female recruits ever and the widest increase in ethnic diversity.
Did you have to convince the New Zealand Police to take creative risks?
We work as a team and collaborate along the way on the best strategy, idea and approach to talk to New Zealand. The New Zealand Police are excited to create and execute big ideas that engage all New Zealanders. It shouldn’t be a risk to do the right thing by your audience.
What’s your approach to working with clients who are reluctant to take risks?
Trust is the most important thing when creating work with a client. It takes time and you need to earn it. You’ve got to prove you’re capable of creating work that will make the shift they need. And sharing ideas that are right, rather than going the hard sell – how can you trust anyone that is selling to you?
