Air Force Special Ops

In 2005, I was contacted by Frank Advertising in Wellington, New Zealand to consult on the design for a recruitment campaign for the Royal New Zealand Air Force. I spent a week in New Zealand helping them to pull together the design concept for a revolutionary campaign designed to increase awareness of the Air Force and the various jobs that are required to keep the Air Force running.

The three month long game introduced players to the trades through puzzles, tasks, and mini-games that mirrored the actual job requirements. As players worked through their way through the mini-games, they were introduced to actual people who worked in the Air Force and were able to receive hints and guidance from them through online videos. The better they performed the tasks, the more points they earned and, at the completion of the task, they were sent more detailed information on the trade and were provided opportunities to get in touch with recruitment officers. All of this was tied together with six caches hidden throughout the country. As players found these caches, they were able to earn more points and discover clues to the location of a missing parachutist. The player with the most points at the end of the game won a helicopter flyover of the country as well as the opportunity to parachute out of the helicopter! The winner and runners-up were all granted passes to an annual open house event celebrating the Air Force.

This was one of my more unique and enjoyable jobs – Not only did I get to visit New Zealand for the first time and spend several days on an Air Force base, but I was met some amazing people from the insanely creative folks at Frank to the dedicated members of Air Force. It really was a job of a lifetime (though I very much hope to top it some day!).