Australia has achieved its highest military recruitment figures in 15 years, with officials crediting targeted ads on TikTok and online games for the boost.
Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that “smarter” digital outreach, including targeted ads on social media platform TikTok and in online games, helped the Australian Defence Force (ADF) achieve its highest recruitment figures in 15 years.
Keogh explained that the ads were being placed “where our target age groups are” to showcase the wide range of careers available in the military.
“Advertising [is also] targeted at those key influencers of our potential enlistees, our young people – so people like parents and teachers,” he added, as quoted in The Guardian newspaper.
The government on Monday said in a statement that the ADF enlisted more than 7,000 full-time personnel in the 2024-25 financial year which ended in June, the most since 2009-10, while applications rose to over 75,000, a five-year high and a 28 per cent year-on-year increase.
ABC reported that the median age of new recruits was 23.
