Driving recruitment at national scale.
How behaviour-first media and iJACK delivered a 320% increase in applications and cut cost per hire by 74%.
The Challenge
First Bus needed to recruit bus drivers at scale across the UK. From dense city centres to rural depots, every geography had its own labour market, its own competitive pressures and its own audience.
The job market was crowded. Candidates were weighing up logistics, retail and hospitality alongside bus driving. The brief was clear: reframe driving as a modern, rewarding career, and reach the right candidates at the right moment across every channel.
Our Approach
We started with the audience, not the media plan. Through behavioural profiling, we built detailed models of three distinct candidate groups: experienced drivers, career changers and work returners, and trainee drivers. Each profile mapped preferred platforms, decision-making triggers, passive attention ratios and conversion pathways.
From there, we built a connected campaign powered by iJACK. Not a plan filed at the start and revisited at the end, but a continuously optimised system that scanned live performance signals and redistributed budget in real time across Meta, search, programmatic, OOH and audio.
Creative was matched to audience and funnel stage. First-touch video put real drivers front and centre. Mid-funnel messaging highlighted local depot opportunities. Bottom-funnel programmatic ads served when behavioural data indicated readiness to apply. Every asset was tested and refined through iJACK as the campaign ran.
The scale of
Execution.
The campaign ran across every First Bus operating area, from Glasgow and Bristol to smaller towns and rural depots. 450+ out-of-home sites ran across city centres, commuter corridors and depot catchment areas, with QR codes directing candidates to their nearest location.
Across digital, we combined Meta video and lead generation, Google Search, programmatic display, BVOD, YouTube and targeted audio. iJACK made over 3,896 bid and budget adjustments across the campaign period, shifting spend by device type, time of day, weather patterns and local market conditions. No opportunity missed. Every pound working harder.
The Results
First Bus did not just fill vacancies. Together, we built a future-fit model for sustainable, scalable talent attraction.