In 2020 Go Cornwall Bus heralded the start of changes to local bus services across Cornwall.
Cornwall Council were awarded an 8-year contract to Go Cornwall Bus (Plymouth Citybus/Go-Ahead) to operate the whole of the county supported local bus network. This equates to around half of all bus journeys made in Cornwall.
THE CHALLENGE
We were asked by Go Cornwall to create a recruitment campaign to increase the numbers of applications for bus drivers across Cornwall.
THE PROCESS
Once targets were set we started work on understanding the types of people within Cornwall that would be interested in the role of bus driver and why. Using this data we were able to clearly work out the audience segments which varied across demographic and personality types but gave us the understanding of how and where to reach and engage with them.
Various creative options were developed but a bright fun approach that was engaging, clear and simple was chosen to be rolled out across the media mix.
We planned the media across radio, digital screens at key locations, newspaper advertising, big screen digital billboards and bus shelter ads to drive awareness including where possible QR codes as a direct link to the website application page.
A key part of the campaign was the social media advertising that allowed us to target and engage the various audiences and key locations within Cornwall. This allowed us to measure the response rates across these platforms which performed way and above targets set.
THE RESULTS
The paid advertising campaign was so successful that various elements of the marketing mix were switched off to slow the responses.
The social media adverts produced:
Bluestone were agile and responsive to the timescale we needed to launch a recruitment campaign. Demonstrating their experience of our industry and expertise, options were put forward, which were not only all feasible but creatively engaging. We were then able to implement a swift execution of collateral across many platforms in Cornwall from print to digital. The chosen platforms were all led by Bluestone’s recommendations and resulted in wide spread interest in the job role.
