Attracting Australian Defence Force recruits is challenging in a competitive job market where unemployment is low. To connect with young males, we needed to position the navy as an aspirational career choice and actively engage them in the adventure of naval life – putting them on the ship! We created a VIRTUAL LIFE AT SEA with ‘Battleships Extreme’ - an online adaptation of the classic board game ‘Battleships’. In an Australian media first, the game was embedded in MSN Messenger. Players could create their own naval identities, battle opponents, and explore career opportunities and Naval life within a personalised environment.

We took the excitement of naval life into a game that appealed to the target’s competitive spirit. Knowing the target need to discover things for themselves, we infiltrated their social network by integrating the game within MSN Messenger. Our audience became advocates for our message as they invited friends to be opponents in combat. They could design their own Naval identity, view actual warships and weaponry and explore different career options in the Navy.

Battleships Extreme was the number one nineMSN game in Australia. It successfully engaged the target: -average interaction time of 20 minutes (vs. 5:47 minutes Defencejobs site)-40% of players returned to the gameIt boosted enlistments to 5 a week and drove acquisition costs down by 77%.