New Zealand Police Releases EPIC Recruitment Video 'Breaking News'

New Zealand Police have released their highly anticipated follow up campaign to 2017’s ‘The World’s Most Entertaining Recruitment Video’; which went viral worldwide, with 91.8 million views in its first week, achieving the highest amount of NZ Police recruits ever.

Ogilvy and (Sweetshop) director Damien Shatford team up once again with a recruitment video that continues to encourage cultural and gender diversity.

‘Breaking News’ is all about asking questions and getting answers, where we see the New Zealand public take over a press conference, with a bit of friendly interrogation, if you will.

Research shows, when considering application to New Zealand Police, potential recruits are seeking out real cops and asking them questions in order to address their queries. However, not everyone knows a cop they can talk to, so how can they connect to this information?

The video, which launched on the New Zealand Police Facebook page has already seen a higher response overnight than 2017’s effort. It encourages potential recruits to sign up at newcops.co.nz, or get more answers on New Zealand Police’s new ChatCops digital platform, where they can view most frequently asked questions via video response, featuring over 100 real Police officers.

Members of the public will be able to ask further questions of the ‘ChatCops’ in the coming months via email and live chat sessions.

“The ‘Breaking News’ video features our officers answering the questions most people commonly ask us before joining up, but in a fun, creative and accessible way,” says Police Commissioner Mike Bush, “Our organisation aspires for New Zealand to be the world’s safest country and the Government has invested significantly to help us to do this by growing our overall staff numbers.”

“We want to better reflect the communities we serve and this means attracting new staff from all backgrounds, but we particularly need more women, Māori, Pacific Islanders and Asians. We also need people who are keen to work in Tāmaki Makaurau.

This innovative campaign sets out to ensure any questions a potential future cop has is answered and we’re confident that will mean more people sign up to join our fantastic organisation.”

’Breaking News’ features over 70 real officers and police staff, with scenes spoken in both english and te reo māori. The video includes cameos from ‘Hunt For the Wilderpeople’ cop, Oscar Kightley, Wellington Paranormal officers Minogue and O’Leary, Lucas de Jong, Stacey Morrison and Police Commissioner Mike Bush.

But the show doesn’t stop there, with the inclusion of Police dog Jango, Police horse Mia and a few familiar faces some may remember from 2017.

Ogilvy Executive Creative Director Lisa Fedyszyn says, “We discovered that potential recruits asked questions of cops they knew in order to help reach their decision about joining, so we wanted to provide as many answers as we could through the film. We thought creating the ChatCops platform would start up more conversations and provide the answers needed for those who didn't have an officer to ask.”

New Zealand Police Acting Deputy Chief Executive- Public Affairs, Jane Archibald says, "We are thrilled with our latest recruitment video in collaboration with our agency, Ogilvy. They have done a great job shining a light on a different perspective of our recruitment story in a way that remains quintessentially Kiwi. It’s important for us to hero our staff as our brand and ‘Breaking News' has enabled us to do this and connect with wider New Zealand."