Make This City Move | Recruitment Campaign

Target Audience: Our primary target audience for this recruitment campaign was active and passive job seekers in the Central Ohio market. Our secondary audience included COTA customers because we wanted to demonstrate to our ridership that COTA was taking action to alleviate our workforce shortage.

Strategy Objective:Our strategy was to connect prospective candidates to the excellent benefits and long-term career value of COTA with storytelling. Through engaging videography and graphics, we shared authentic stories from real members of Team COTA who have grown personally and professionally thanks to opportunities provided through their role at COTA. These stories helped raise awareness for COTA's hiring efforts and generated excitement among prospective candidates who felt called to "Make This City Move." We also advertised generous sign-on bonuses available to prospective Operators.

Situation Challenge: As the U.S. transitioned from the height of the pandemic to a more endemic state of mind, workforce shortages rocked the nation. This was particularly true for the public transportation sector. COTA was no exception. Due to the lack of available Operators and natural attrition, COTA was forced to make service cuts based on our operational capacity. To alleviate this workforce shortage, our marketing team developed this eye-catching recruitment campaign, "Make This City Move," that delivered qualified and interested candidates.

Results Impact: The numbers speak for themselves. To date, our campaign has reached 742,877 people and garnered more than 34 million impressions. In the first month of our campaign, there was a 75 percent increase in applications. Within the first four months of our recruitment campaign, COTA's marketing garnered 711 applications, 665 of which were from qualified applicants. Our recruitment campaign made an impact where it mattered most – qualified applicants.

Why Submit: This recruitment campaign showed the power of authentic storytelling and inspired qualified applicants to take action and apply for a role with COTA during a time when job seekers were scarce. At COTA, we went the extra mile to stand out from the crowd with this truly dynamic campaign that drove our community to "Make This City Move."