The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2022
Australian Federal Police recruits specialists with its own true-crime podcast
Host/Havas turned AFP recruitment into a six-part Casefile podcast where analysts, pathologists and technicians solve Australia's most notorious crimes.
Australian Federal Police
What it had to solve
Staying ahead of serious crime requires more than officers — analysts, pathologists, technicians and other specialists — and the Australian Federal Police was struggling to recruit diverse, diversely skilled candidates for those roles. Traditional recruitment communications were turning the audience off, so Host/Havas looked at what that audience actually tuned into.
How it works
Keeping a step ahead of serious crime takes more than officers — analysts, pathologists, technicians and other specialists — and the Australian Federal Police was struggling to recruit diverse, diversely skilled candidates for those roles. Its traditional recruitment communications were turning the audience off, so Host/Havas looked at what that audience was actually tuning into: true-crime podcasts.
The agency partnered with Casefile, Australia's leading true-crime podcast, to create a six-part series called Crime Interrupted. Each episode opens the vault on one of Australia's most notorious crimes and shows how a diverse range of skill sets — not just policing — brought the offenders down; the series launched on 4 February 2022.
The twist was that the recruitment pitch never had to interrupt: the roles the AFP needed were cast as the protagonists of real cases, so a listener finished each episode having seen why pathologists, analysts and technicians matter. Crime Interrupted entered the D&AD awards archive as an example of recruitment content that borrows the audience's own format instead of fighting it.
Why it lands
- The pitch arrived inside the genre the audience already consumed, so recruitment never had to interrupt anyone's listening.
- Each episode made the job the plot: specialist skills are the characters who solve the crime, not a list of duties tacked onto an ad.
- Diverse roles got equal billing — analysts, pathologists, technicians — reaching candidates who never saw themselves in traditional officer recruitment.
- Borrowing Casefile's established audience gave the AFP trust and reach it could not buy with a conventional recruitment campaign.
What it did
The series made the careers the story: instead of being interrupted by a recruitment ad, listeners met the AFP's specialist roles as the people who close real cases, in a format they already chose to hear. The work entered the D&AD awards archive as a content-led answer to a hiring problem.
What you can take
Recruit where the talent already listens: make the career the solution inside content they love, not an interruption around it.
Since then
Crime Interrupted launched on 4 February 2022 and stayed in the D&AD awards archive as a reference for AFP recruitment content. Host/Havas, appointed in 2021 to reposition the AFP brand for a new generation of recruits, continued the programme behind the podcast, and by mid-2022 the agency said a second season was being prepared.
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