How do you bring leisure and retail passengers back to the bus after lockdown?

After months of pandemic lockdown, patronage on First Bus's West of England network had fallen to around half of pre-pandemic levels, with leisure and retail travel the primary focus for recovery alongside targeted commuter corridors.

We planned a campaign in three layers. Geo-targeted broadcast built fast mass awareness across Bristol, Bath, Weston-super-Mare and Wells. Audience-targeted paid social, digital display and paid search reached leisure, retail and commuter audiences inside the Bristol Local Authority area. Route-corridor targeting used online media and direct mail. The plan paired this with local partners, Business Improvement Districts, Visit West and independent local businesses, to promote the area's hidden gems as reasons to travel again.

Mass-awareness broadcast ran through August 2021 on Greatest Hits Radio, ITV1 HTV West and Sky AdSmart, while digital media and direct mail ran route by route from June to December 2021. Mid-campaign, we moved budget from Twitter and display to Facebook once it proved strongest for the free-ticket and £1-fare trial offers, bringing lapsed and new passengers back on board.

The combined online click-through rate landed well above industry averages, and landing-page traffic almost tripled once broadcast awareness had built, giving First West of England clear evidence of which channels were working.