How to recruit young Swedes to the military

Enlisting in the military is obligatory in Sweden, but according to the regulations, “free-will and motivation” must come under strong consideration in recruitment. At the same time, as many as a third of 18-year-olds answer “I don’t know” when asked if they are interested in military service. With conscription partially based volunteering and an increasing need for new recruits, this is a clear challenge.

The strategy behind the 2022 campaign concept was based on two important foundations: We need to give individualistic Generation Z arguments for why it is a good idea to enlist. We need to talk about conscription and military service on the target group’s own terms.

The solution was the concept ‘My strengths’ – a broad campaign using both digital and analogue channels that were aimed at preparing the target group for their upcoming obligations to enlist.

Knowing that young people are primarily inspired by people they can identify with, we created a concept based on the idea of letting young people speak directly to other young people (instead of authorities to young people). In a series of clips, actual 18-year-olds talk about what strengths they see in themselves. The idea of letting young people film themselves was based on the realisation that the target audience values authenticity in the content they consume.

Spoon produced all content pieces. In the campaign, we wanted to address the target group on their own terms, and let real stories speak for themselves. That’s why our short films are based on selfie clips taken by young people.