Department of Corrections launches major recruitment push with Stanley St campaign

WELLINGTON, Today: Stanley St has launched Stories from the Inside, the latest in Corrections’ recruitment efforts. Ryan Wolf, from the Guilt: True Crime podcast, brings to life the experiences of Corrections staff on TV, online, and billboards.

Directed by Robin Walters for Film360 and filmed behind the wire at a Waikato facility, the campaign’s stories are both authentic and emotive, drawing on real-life experiences to highlight the crucial role of Corrections in keeping New Zealand safe.

“It’s no secret we’ve faced significant staffing pressures over the last 18 months, and we’ve been actively recruiting more people to the frontline. Our first recruitment campaign, which ran in 2022 and 2023, helped us hire over 1,000 new Corrections Officers,” says Neil Beales, Chief Custodial Officer at Corrections.

The campaign includes 45” stories followed by 15” CTA spots that feature the same characters making a direct invitation to the audience to join the Department of Corrections team.

“A lot of our work goes unseen, so it’s great being able to tell real stories about what our staff do in prisons and the community.”

“A lot of our work goes unseen, so it’s great being able to tell real stories about what our staff do in prisons and the community. These stories are just a few examples, but hopefully they give potential recruits a better idea of what a career at Corrections looks like,” says Neil.

The first advertisement, titled ‘Pushed Out’, aired on television on Sunday, 4 February, reaching approximately 241,308 people in the target audience of people aged 25-54.

“This year’s campaign also includes a customised solution leveraging real-time job listing data to target the media spend to the areas where frontline staff are most required, overlaid with job seeker audience targeting,” says Courtney Newton, Head of Media Planning and Investment at Stanley St.

“During the campaign, we will leverage dynamic creative elements, ensuring the right job vacancies are delivered to the most relevant locations. This new always-on approach will utilise a Stanley St. proprietary decisioning engine to manage Corrections’ media spend effectively and efficiently by dialling up or down the budget to areas and roles most in demand,” explains Courtney.