Cpl Collier and Capt Wilson-Pearson discuss operating a Leopard Tank with AFL player, St Kilda ruckman Nick Riewoldt. Photos by Spr Adam Rowland, 4CER

The Army display won the three major prizes at the Royal Melbourne Show and was a highly successful reserve recruiting drive.

Tpr Lynch chats to a keen youngster about the job of the APC commander.

Greatest show in town
Army exhibit scoops prize pool
at Royal Melbourne Show

By Peter Johnson
VICTORIA’S 4 Bde has emerged a big winner on two fronts with its Army Expo at this year’s Royal Melbourne Show.

The first coup was a successful Army Reserve recruiting experiment where the names and addresses of more than 1000 potential recruits were recorded in an electronic database.

In the second coup, the display won the three major prizes at the Royal Agricultural Society’s presentation ceremony – Best Commercial Exhibit, Best Customer Service at Show, and the top prize, Best Display 2002.

4CER organised and conducted the event on behalf of the brigade, employing techniques and principles designed to apply some science to Reserve recruiting.

CO Lt-Col Greg Mirabella, said the results had astonished most, including the brigade commander.

“We have more than 1000 good quality leads in the database,” he said.

“Now we face the next phase – dividing up the database among the units and following up to either get these people to come to unit information sessions, or call 131 901.

“We haven’t really succeeded until we start enlisting some of these people but all indications are that we will experience a good conversion rate.

“And in addition to the database, we gave information out to thousands more prospects who didn’t give us their details but have already started contacting us at local unit level.”

Soldiers from all over Victoria who participated in the show exercise worked miracles.

“They have become consummate recruiters, gaining fantastic experience that should stand the brigade in good stead in the future.

“We’ve also fielded a huge number of inquiries for general tri-service full-time entry, as well as Army and Air Force cadets.”

The principles applied were adapted from private sector marketing theory, including personal selling techniques to attract, engage, persuade, and fulfil.

“A key to everything was that we did our appreciation from the civilian perspective, not the Army’s.”

It was determined that recruiting by simply turning up to a civic event and standing in front of a bus or desk and giving people a phone number to call, was a proven low success method.

“We chose the show because the demographics indicated recruitable prospects attend in their tens of thousands, even though past recruiting efforts there were largely unsuccessful.”

The principles were:

• Patrons attend the show for entertainment and leisure, not to seriously consider a job.
• Every activity in the display must be interactive, providing a mechanism whereby staff could engage and talk to patrons.
• Emphasise that the ‘rides’ were free.
• Recruiting is generally not a single phase process, therefore the objective was to generate leads rather than recruit, leading to more detailed contact at a more appropriate time and place.
• Everything was soft-sell, with the title Army Expo and no overt mention of recruiting.
• There had to be enough staff, well briefed, to be able to speak to as many people as possible.

A key item in the display was a portable WTSS rifle range.

“We knew no such thing existed so we made one, using the same technology as in the Army’s static WTSS facilities but in a tent.

“What we got was a four-lane rifle range which proved enormously popular as well as an extraordinarily successful engagement tool, encouraging many people to want to know more about joining the Army Reserve.”

The displays were supplemented by information tents where information was given out and people were asked if they would like to be contacted at a later time.

Each tent contained networked laptops using a specially designed database where people could enter their details including e-mail addresses.

The Army Expo occupied a large area, 1500sq m, including many interactive displays along with a Leopard tank, M113 APC, ASLAV, the new 100km/h-capable tractor, the new Unimog tow truck and the first bulldozer built in Australia in WW2.

Patrons also took a close look at the see-in-the-dark tent where they discovered how night vision goggles work.

Visitors to the expo gained first-hand experience of how the Army keeps in touch through Land Rover-mounted communications equipment, at times even being able to talk to Navy and Air Force pilots flying overhead.

In fact, everything from mine detecting equipment to medical gear was up and running, provoking keen interest from Victorians pouring through the turnstiles.

The site was further enhanced by a museum display commemorating a centenary of Army engineers, which included a mine-clearing vehicle used in Vietnam.

The display was staffed with up to 70 soldiers in peak times with up to 15 people at a time engaged in and around the information tents.

“In the event, these staff numbers at times were barely adequate to cope with the number of patrons in the site.”

Lt-Col Mirabella added that the Army Expo had attracted good media coverage, getting repeated airing in all major TV, radio and press outlets in Melbourne.

He welcomed the Royal Agricultural Society’s (RAS) acknowledgment of the display through its awards as serious recognition.

“It could have been four prizes but I think politeness kept them from nominating us in the Best Government Exhibit prize.

“We expected to get some good PR but I was genuinely surprised at winning the major awards. The RAS people were effusive in their praise for the Army Expo and they are already badgering us to return next year, saying that we added enormous value to the show.”

He noted that the awards acknowledged the efforts of all the 4 Bde people who had worked extremely hard to create the expo and that it was gratifying to see rewards for the effort everyone put in.

“This exercise has been remarkable. It has been extremely difficult to get together, not least because many people in Defence didn’t believe it was worth the effort.

“But the final result is without parallel as far as we know. Most importantly we have tried and proven a methodology which should provide some invaluable lessons for Reserve recruiting in future.”

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