CASE STUDY
Client
DigiGo
Services provided
DigiGo, a fully electric shared public transport service, provides on-demand and pre-bookable travel across Essex through the TravelEssex journey planning app. Essex County Council sought to achieve the following:
The objectives spanned raising service awareness, driving TravelEssex app downloads, and filling critical vacancies with high-quality candidates.
PLMR Genesis implemented a series of targeted campaigns tailored to DigiGo’s dual needs: public service promotion and recruitment.
DigiGo Service Awareness Campaign
We delivered a two-phase digital advertising strategy via Meta and Google Display. Phase 1 focused on initial broad awareness to introduce the brand new on-demand bus service, DigiGo. Whilst phase 2 utilised detailed interest targeting to encourage app downloads for the TravelEssex app. The ads targeted four key audience groups: parents and families, students and young people, working professionals, and the general public. These four key audiences were targeted as they were the most likely audience groups to use the service, therefore offering better results and higher return on ad spend.
DigiGo Driver Recruitment Campaign
As part of the new on-demand bus service, Essex County Council needed to recruit more drivers for the buses. We designed an empowering recruitment campaign with the tagline “Get Behind the Wheel” to motivate career changers.
We utilised Meta for its precise targeting options, used bold creative visuals to stand out in the audience feed, and diverse hero images to resonate with various demographics.
DigiGo & Ugobus Joint Recruitment Campaign
The council saw extreme growth in both its DigiGo and UgoBus services and therefore needed to recruit more drivers to deliver user demand. We delivered a split-campaign strategy for DigiGo and Ugobus, incorporating three sub-campaigns:
These ads leveraged tailored messaging and visuals aligned to user interests, behaviour, and locations.
DigiGo Service Awareness
Achieved over 2.1 million impressions and 10,000 TravelEssex app downloads in just six months. The campaign was extended due to its success, further educating Essex residents on DigiGo’s functionality.
DigiGo Driver Recruitment
Generated over 11,000 clicks to the recruitment site, reaching over 157,000 individuals in Essex. The campaign surpassed initial recruitment goals, delivering 97 applications (57 meeting desired criteria), filling all vacancies within budget.
DigiGo & Ugobus Driver Recruitment
Produced over 1.4 million impressions and 41,000 clicks in only four weeks. Over 20 applications were received in the first three days, meeting operational deadlines for both DigiGo and Ugobus.
These campaigns demonstrated PLMR Genesis’s ability to deliver impactful advertising solutions, fostering awareness of an innovative service while fulfilling critical recruitment needs with measurable success.
PLMR’s crisis communications experience is second to none, and includes pre-emptive and reactive work across traditional and social media channels. We work with a range of organisations to offer critical communication support when they are faced with difficult and challenging scenarios.
