Recruiting new Gloucestershire Police Specials through inspiring storytelling

Using real stories of real people and the incredible work they do, we created a campaign to inspire the next wave of Gloucestershire Special Constabulary (SC) recruits.

Brief

The Special Constabulary volunteers make a huge contribution to delivering police services, dedicating their free time on top of their regular jobs to support the force. C+H Collective were asked to create a campaign that would showcase the unique aspect of being a Special Officer within Gloucestershire to recruit new applicants.

Solution

The campaign focuses around the skills and expertise Gloucestershire's SC's have in their day to day jobs. We wanted to have an emotive title to make people stop, think and ask themselves – that could be me! From an NHS psychologist to pub landlord, it was important to convey the diversity of people and skills. We wanted the campaign to be identifiable with a broad demographic, as this is ultimately representative of our society.

Photography by John Ord, Kinetic Studios

Working with the wonderful photographer John Ord from Kinetic Studios, the approach was to use a combination of studio lit shots for the 'civies' profile, looking into a mirror. The 'reflection' was then shot in uniform, in situ. We wanted to have people in their 'normal' work attire as an identifiable visual cue for any possible new candidate. Then reflecting back at themselves is their SC 'other side'. The overall design needed to be bright and engaging – making people stop in their tracks and take note.

A suite of assets has been created from street furniture to online social ads and printed literature, which is currently being rolled out across Gloucestershire.