Go North West

The challenge

When Greater Manchester changed the way bus services operated, Go North West was selected for the first two franchises but, with services coming on stream in a matter of months, they urgently needed to recruit an unprecedented number of drivers to fill the biggest shortfall any operator had ever seen.

The provocative thought

It was clear from the outset that we’d not find 300 drivers by looking within the bus or transport industry alone. The vast majority would need to be people who’d never previously considered a career as a bus driver – whether they thought driving a huge bus was beyond them, or just that it was a career lacking in rewards, we had to challenge their perceptions. So, what if we broke out of traditional “bus” media and messaging and elevated the role of the bus driver?

Solution

We put a big idea at the heart of the campaign – driving a bus is a job for the elite; bold, witty and PR-able, it featured real drivers, at their brilliant best. We also set up the Elite Driver Academy and completely reinvented the recruitment, training and onboarding programmes to reflect the tone of the campaign and the lustre we wanted to build around the role. Elite Bus Driver saw applicant numbers double and was covered by regional TV and press, and is due to feature on the BBC One Show.