An extraordinary job. Done by someone like you. - HMPPS | Clapboard Ad Archive

An extraordinary job. Done by someone like you puts HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) at the center of a pivotal recruitment shift for the UK’s justice sector, with House 337 delivering a campaign for 2023 that directly tackles the industry’s persistent image barrier and critical talent gap. In a sector where fewer than 20% of the public would consider applying, the brand’s new platform instead highlights the human qualities underpinning effective frontline service, foregrounding authenticity and relatability over stereotypes or abstraction. The campaign’s anchor is a 30-second film that stitches together lived experiences and real language from serving prison officers, shot within the institutional context of HMP Berwyn to lend visual credibility and emotional weight; this is complemented by two sharp 20-second executions focusing on the transformative role of probation staff, each shot in active probation environments to reinforce immediacy and integrity. Crucially, this work sits squarely in Clapboard’s FORMAT#10—Associated User Imagery, a technique built to bridge the gap between candidate skepticism and sector need by showing ordinary people, not caricatures, thriving in extraordinary roles. Everything is underpinned by immersive on-the-ground research, conducted by House 337 and the Ministry of Justice, whose agency commissioning reflects a wider transformation initiative within HMPPS to modernize recruitment and frontline delivery while reducing reoffending and raising professional standards. Media is sophisticated and highly targeted, running across UK video-on-demand, online channels, digital audio, and social platforms; regional weighting ensures that urgent recruitment needs are prioritized, maximizing quality of response. While the brand proposition is clear—public safety and rehabilitation depend on workers who see themselves as agents of positive change—the creative execution steers away from self-congratulation, instead inviting candidates to identify personally with the character strengths, resilience, and empathy modelled in each film. By anchoring the emotional pitch in documentary accuracy rather than campaign rhetoric, HMPPS and House 337 forge a distinct position against better-known private sector players like Serco, G4S, Mitie Care & Custody, and Sodexo Justice Services—each of whom emphasize performance, modernization, or care, but often with a corporate gloss. The crisp employer branding developed here is less about institutional heroics than about self-selection and pragmatic aspiration: if you share the right traits, you probably belong. The campaign earns 66/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. In reimagining public service recruitment with honesty, clarity, and a decisive break from received wisdom, HMPPS signals that the narrative of who belongs in justice careers is changing—and that change must be led by the public sector itself.