The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has failed to prove the effectiveness of its recruitment advertising campaigns, an audit has found.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) says that while the management of campaigns is largely effective, the results are not evaluated.
And that means the extent of applications to join ADF, and the effectiveness of marketing budgets, are not assessed.
The Department of Finance reported recruitment advertising expenditure at $60.2 million for 2022–23, representing about 33.6% of total Australian Government advertising spend of $179.3 million.
ADF, the largest Australian creative account, is currently held by long-term partner WPP-owned VML but is up for pitch.
Submissions have closed and insiders say the client is looking for a change.
The ANAO studied three Defence recruitment campaigns from the 2022-23 period.
The report found that ADF complied with most of the requirements of the campaign advertising framework, and largely complied with the relevant guidelines on Information and Advertising Campaigns.
But the ADF could not provide supporting evidence to verify the accuracy of cost for each campaign. And does not track effectiveness of campaigns after they have ended.
ADF has agreed with the findings and has committed to better public reporting on individual advertising campaigns, including to:
- Establish clear objectives for each campaign prior to the development of the campaign,
- Document an evaluation plan, and
- At the conclusion of each campaign, prepare a final evaluation report.
"The report comes at a pressing time for Defence which, while it says it needs to grow its uniformed numbers by a third by 2040, is failing to meet its current recruitment and retention targets," Public Sector and Defence News reported.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has urged ADF to “rebrand itself as a modern, technologically advanced organisation that offers challenging and rewarding careers and use targeted recruitment to get the tech skills that it needs.
“While the 2016 Defence White Paper acknowledged the need for technological adaptation, the ADF’s response has been sluggish and insufficient,” ASPI said.
Last month ADF redesigned and upgraded its career discovery and recruitment platform.
The most recent ADF campaign was the Royal Australian Air Force's 'Up There' which broke down the misconception that a career in the Air Force is out of reach.
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