Community Transit's Video Series in Support of Mechanic Recruitment

Target Audience: The video campaign targeted job seekers in Snohomish and neighboring counties. Specifically, we hoped to attract candidates that met our Journey Mechanic job requirements.

Strategy Objective:Our strategy was to create content that wasn't simply recruiting focused, but also offered an entertaining and fun look into what our mechanics do and all the work that keeps our buses running. The video format and graphic text could engage people passively scrolling on their phones and invite those interested to apply. Our intent was to drive awareness about the job and ultimately to bring in potential applicants to apply. A secondary objective was to engage people in our community, inspire awareness and trust in our service, and educate people about what our mechanics do to keep local transit running safely and smoothly.

Situation Challenge: Due to the effects of the pandemic and the ensuing labor shortage, competition for hiring talent has become incredibly competitive. Mechanic jobs are particularly competitive. To help make the agency stand out from other hiring ads in the market, the marketing and creative design teams wanted to create a promotional video series that highlights the fun and interesting aspects of the mechanic job, including some of the things that differentiate our agency from other employers. Our hope was that these ads could highlight the accomplishments and value that our mechanics bring to the agency and to the community.

Results Impact: The videos have been viewed almost 360,000 times, reached over 149,000 people and garnered 1,200 link clicks from Facebook since they launched last summer. We have received substantial engagement on these videos. We have also seen a notable increase in applications for the mechanic position through these video ads. The comments and positive feedback we received also indicated that our audience enjoyed the videos.

Why Submit: This submission shows how creative and engaging content can disrupt an ad landscape that is over-saturated by recruiting ads. Creative storytelling about the work we do comes with many challenges, but we found a way to create video content that told a story without interrupting the work done in our shops and without heavily featuring any specific mechanics in the ads. This shows how even amid different barriers to creating video content, thinking outside of the box can lead to great content. Most importantly, we're proud of how we were able to engage potential job applicants while educating passive viewers about how we maintain our vehicles and inspiring brand awareness.