Air Force's advertising offensive nets recruits

By IRENE CHAPPLE and NZPA

The Air Force credits its latest advertising campaign with the biggest intake of recruits in several years.

The campaign, created largely by Wellington agency RedRocks, rebrands an Air Force without its former glamour quotient - its strike force.

The $750,000 advertising campaign was launched in October to highlight the range of career options available within the Air Force since the axing of the Skyhawk air combat aircraft.

A new logo was created - without the Skyhawks - and five television commercials were created.

The Air Force has now offered 91 candidates a place on its next training course, starting on January 21, the biggest intake of recruits in years. The Air Force's director of recruiting, Squadron Leader Sue Connolly, said they had been flooded with calls inquiring about career options since television advertisements went to air.

"We have had over 2000 calls to the call centre in the last few months.

"The new campaign addresses what the Air Force does in a good light.

"We are really pleased with the response," she said.

Connolly said a lot of the advertising's former material had been about the air combat's role, but now they had to focus on the rest.

She said strike force was only 10 per cent of the force's role and a larger part was about education, different career options and fun.

"It was just a matter of reminding people that we are here."

Air Force personnel director Neil Hygate said the advertising campaign had been developed to combat dwindling recruiting levels.

He said there was also widespread public belief that the air force had died with the Skyhawks.

Base Woodbourne's general service training wing trains all new recruits, running three courses a year. Each course could accommodate up to 120 cadets.

This year's first course trained 55 recruits, the second attracted only 20 and the third had a roll of 30, bringing the annual total to 105.

In the previous two years 150 and 153 recruits had been trained.

Connolly said the force needed to train around 250 recruits annually to remain at a healthy level.

With the large January intake they were well on the way to meeting that target next year, she said.

"We hope to build on the momentum with another television campaign in January and are looking at around 86 recruits for the following intake in May."