Lights. Camera. Traction. 

Getting a real reaction. 

We needed to convince high-potential graduates to turn away from a career in the City, and become prison officers instead. It was a tough sell, made tougher by a desire to reach more niche, untapped audiences too. It called for a video that grabbed people from the start, and kept them watching. 

Plenty of Unlocked’s graduates had experienced negative reactions as well as positive ones when they’d first announced their chosen path. So we decided to weave this wild range of emotions throughout our video. 

Honesty is the best policy. So our script took our audiences on an emotional rollercoaster.  

It featured a baffled friend. An impressed future interviewer. A beaming man. A fuming dad. A mortified mum. A jealous brother. Even an intrigued first date. Their dialogue overlapped into one rolling stream of reactions. This brought pace, and allowed us to (almost) swear a couple of times. Cheeky. 

Key takeaways:

• Be bold.
• Find that positive spin.
• Address people’s worries.
• Get the right reaction. 

The video and supporting campaign have won plenty of industry awards, and leaders from other public sector grad programmes have congratulated Unlocked for the video’s courage and quality. But of course, what matters most is that we won our audiences over.  

Big results: 

• 100% increase in applications from year before.
• 450,000+ views on YouTube.
• 343 applications.
• 8% increase in target male applications.