It's a Thing Around Here

Target Audience: The audience for this campaign was potential job seekers. We targeted those earning under $55,000, between the ages of 21 and 50 with a high school diploma in Travis and surrounding counties within a 60-mile radius. A secondary target were individuals who currently work in customer service and helping professions as we learned from our human resources department that those who pursue jobs as bus operators have backgrounds and/or interest in serving others and the community.

Strategy Objective:The strategy was to promote the benefits of working at CapMetro. A new pay rate was finalized in January before the campaign launch, increasing starting pay from $17.50 to $22 an hour. This was a significant increase that made these jobs much more competitive in the Austin job market. We highlighted other benefits including a generous sign-on bonus and paid training to earn a CDL license. We featured photos of current bus operators to show the diversity of the team, range of positions available, as well as examples of real-life career growth at CapMetro. The campaign included radio spots, billboards, transit ads, YouTube videos, digital ads, Google Responsive Display ads, Facebook and Instagram ads and a presence at our local live music festival sponsorship.

Situation Challenge: CapMetro has been experiencing a shortage of bus drivers and mechanics that has impacted service so severely it caused a reduction in service in September 2021. This shortage has been in place since a system re-design in 2018 that expanded the number of high-frequency routes, and has been exacerbated by the pandemic. A nationwide shortage of bus drivers has made the field highly competitive. Our human resources department was tasked with a goal of hiring 300 bus operators within an eight-month period. CapMetro bus operators and mechanics are employed by MV Transportation, with whom we contract for services. In this recruitment effort, CapMetro's marketing team worked closely with CapMetro's human resources and collaborated with the MV human resources team.

Results Impact: The campaign generated strong results. We saw a peak number of bus operator applicants after the campaign launched with 219 total applicants in January and 211 in February, up 84% from a monthly average of 119 applicants the previous six months. With a budget of $207,994 spent across digital, billboards, radio and theater we generated the below results: Impressions Transit ads: 18M Billboards: 38M Digital: 17M Radio: 9M reach Radio2: 9M reach Theater: 491,367 We saw web traffic to our jobs page spike in mid-March with our highest number of unique pageviews to the site at 15.1K, a 202% increase from the previous month. That month saw 12K users (up 249% from the previous month) and 10.5K new users (a 453% increase from the previous month).

Why Submit: "It's a Thing Around Here" creatively communicated CapMetro's culture and the campaign generated solid results. We marketed across various channels, created materials promoting word of mouth referrals among drivers, and met the ambitious hiring quota of 300 new hires within an eight-month period. CapMetro Talent Acquisition Manager Adam Rosenfeld explained the importance of our recruiting work: "In Austin, we're experiencing a mobility and affordability crisis at the same time. CapMetro is providing a unique opportunity in that we are providing a public service with new mobility options being added yearly, but also providing a different kind of public service in that we are transforming lives through above-the-pay grade career opportunities and through second chance hiring."