Public transportation

How do you give a whole city reasons to get back on the bus?

By giving people somewhere to go, then making the trip easy. For LeedsCity, First Bus's Leeds network, Route planned the Leeds strand of Let's Get There Together in 2021, reaching leisure, retail and commuter audiences with local reasons to travel, app-led tickets and, from the autumn, a £1 evening fare.

Client

LeedsCity (First Bus)

Campaign

Let's Get There Together, Leeds

Channels

ITV Hub, All 4, Sky Go, Sky AdSmart, Greatest Hits Radio, digital display, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Google search

Campaign period

July to October 2021

Three of the campaign's social tiles, shown side by side.

The brief

As lockdown eased in summer 2021, First Bus set out to bring people back to the bus across West Yorkshire, and the Leeds strand carried the LeedsCity brand. It had to reach people heading out to shop and see friends as well as those going back to the office or the classroom, with reasons to travel that felt local to Leeds.

What we planned

We planned for three audiences, leisure, retail and commuters, and split their messages between weekdays and Thursday to Sunday, when people make very different trips. Broadcaster video on ITV Hub, All 4 and Sky Go ran only in the Leeds local authority area, as did Sky AdSmart, and Greatest Hits Radio on its Leeds transmission opened the campaign. Digital display, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube and Google search carried the detail. The creative named real places, from Trinity Leeds and Roundhay Park to Call Lane and the Rhinos, under the line "Live local, spend local, travel local."

How it ran

The campaign ran from July to October. On social, an awareness strand ran alongside an app-install strand, so the same messages also gave people a reason to download the First Bus app, for mobile tickets, live bus tracking and a live view of how busy each bus was. When First introduced a £1 evening fare from 7pm in the autumn, we switched to price-first creative for younger adults heading into town, naming places like Call Lane, Greek Street and Elland Road, and the broadcaster video still to run carried the new fare through October.

What the reporting showed

Monthly reporting showed First where each part of the plan was working. Visits to the campaign landing page rose through the campaign and peaked in early to mid September. Video drew the strongest response among display formats, and by October the £1 evening fare was the Snapchat ad people saw most.

Outcome

What LeedsCity got from it

A campaign that gave Leeds local reasons to travel again, put the First Bus app into every message and moved quickly to promote a new evening fare, with reporting that showed First which messages and channels were working across the city.

How we plan media