From job title to societal role
An authority that deals with criminals wasn’t exactly at the top of the list of Sweden’s most attractive employers or brands. So how do you get someone – or rather thousands – to want to become a correctional officer in a time marked by gang shootings, fear and hardline attitudes? How do you attract those with the right qualities to a world that everyone seems to have an opinion about, but few truly know?
The case in brief
What we do
Together with the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården), Gullers Grupp has worked for several years to increase interest in and understanding of Kriminalvården – both as a workplace and as an important societal actor.
At the heart of the work is a brand-building concept developed to raise the status and appeal of Kriminalvården, and to highlight its competence and diversity. The concept is summed up in the phrase “We break the vicious circle”, a line that puts the agency’s societal value front and centre – and opens up communication about its role in helping the convicted return to society instead of committing new crimes. If Kriminalvården succeeds in this, society as a whole becomes safer.
The concept has been expressed through a range of communication efforts: over the years, several recruitment campaigns for both permanent and temporary staff, an updated visual identity, a redesigned website, PR efforts, and more.
The solutions have often been unexpected: The mobile exhibition truck/trailer is one such example – a unique communications channel in the world of government agencies, and a rare one in general. The trailer was developed as a way to make Kriminalvården’s closed world accessible to the public. In the process, we were also able to use the agency’s own staff to bring credibility to the message and build internal pride.
The trailer is a mobile event space (and due to its size, also a highly visible carrier of messages) that includes, among other things, a real prison cell of around 10 square metres. Visitors can step inside to get a sense of what it’s like to be an inmate – a way to increase understanding of what it means to work within Kriminalvården and open up conversations. The trailer was, for example, the central component in a summer campaign when Kriminalvården needed to recruit approximately 1,800 seasonal staff.
Another example is the podcast “Utan att passera gå” (Do Not Pass Go). Here, the innovation lay less in the choice of channel and more in tone and production. “Utan att passera gå” is not a “government podcast” – it’s a podcast about a world in which a government agency plays a vital role. That change in perspective was both big and crucial.
We chose to let the podcast pick up where most other crime podcasts end – where Kriminalvården’s work begins: behind prison walls. How do you keep rival gangs apart in prison? Can a prison be made escape-proof? Is treatment in custody just idealism – or is it evidence-based? These and many other questions were explored and answered – always from the listener’s point of view.
The communication efforts paid off. The goal for the summer campaign was to receive enough applications to fill 1,800 temporary summer jobs. When the campaign was summed up, a total of 6,650 applications had been received – an average of 3.7 applicants per position.
For the podcast, the goal was of course to achieve as much reach, attention and as many listeners as possible. We aimed high – setting the target to reach Poddtoppen, Sweden’s list of most listened-to podcasts. After one week, the podcast had reached number one on Poddtoppen.
We created a world of suspense
Outdoor campaigns in urban and public transport environments proved to be effective ways of both shifting perceptions of the agency and driving traffic to kriminalvården.se.
The films, shown across several social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and Instagram), drove traffic to kriminalvården.se – where more information awaited and job applications could be submitted.
Click to play the film
Click to play the film
Example of recruitment advertising on Spotify
Utan att passera gå
By letting correctional officers from very different backgrounds share their personal stories, we sparked curiosity and understanding of the profession.
Click to listen to an episode of the podcast
Campaign that drove listens and traffic to the podcast
To spark curiosity around the podcast Utan att passera gå, we ran campaigns on social media platforms. We also created editorial sponsorships.
Listen to the collaboration with Mårten Trofast and the podcast Uppgång & Fall
Listen to the collaboration with Kristoffer Triumf and the podcast Värvet
Animated ads for Utan att passera gå were produced and adapted for a range of social media platforms. Above is an example of an ad that reached the target audience on YouTube.
Advertising was optimised to reach the audience on Meta: Facebook and Instagram Stories.
In spring 2024, the podcast reached second place in Svenska Dagbladet’s ranking of the best podcasts right now.
With the help of supporting outdoor campaigns, we drove listeners to the podcast and traffic to kriminalvården.se
With the help of supporting outdoor campaigns, we drove listeners to the podcast and traffic to kriminalvården.se
With the help of supporting outdoor campaigns, we drove listeners to the podcast and traffic to kriminalvården.se