RAF to represent modern Britain

Client: Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force wanted to position themselves as an inclusive and welcoming employer for young 18–24 year-olds from ethnic minority backgrounds. However, the RAF were seen as ‘white and male’ by our audience, whilst we were also up against deep rooted distrust in armed forces, stemming from a lived history of systemic discrimination and racism.

What made this even more of an insurmountable challenge was the sheer diversity of our multicultural audiences who make up over 25% of the UK’s population and include people from varied cultural heritages, ethnic groups and subgroups, religious faiths, languages, and countries of birth. All had their own unique lived experiences, barriers, and individual career considerations.

We knew standard advertising was never going to cut through to such a multi-layered audience with this difficult set of challenges. We needed to think very differently. So, we harnessed the power of storytelling through a complex set of collaborations with 98 different trusted platforms and voices from the community. This resulted in a huge uplift of 39% in Expressions of Interest in RAF careers submitted by people from ethnic minority backgrounds.