Bus Driver Shortage Music Video
Target Audience: The target for this audience is potential pool of new bus drivers as well as the public transit industry. To reach this pool the video was released in partnership with Mr. Barricade from TikTok who has 1.4 Million followers of mostly people age 18-30. This group is interested in public transit and would be an excellent target to try and draw new bus drivers. An additional target is for LADOT and Anaheim Transit Network's own social media channels to draw bus drivers and highlight the overall bud driver shortage.
Strategy Objective:To coordinate release via social media channels initially of LADOT and Anaheim Transit Network who gave permission to film on their bus, and Crissy Ditmore @FabCityCrissy and Vignesh Swaminathan @MrBarricade to draw wide awareness to the bud driver shortage. It was premiered at APTA Expo 2021 where it received rave reception from the industry when we met.
Situation Challenge: Worldwide there is a lack of available bus drivers. We wanted to create something fun and innovative to try and bring attention to this gap in workforce and help a new generation of potential drivers see it as a fun and rewarding career choice.
Results Impact: Amazing number of views overall across all channels. The video was shared and reshared across so many channels it is impossible to count overall impact, but the source of the release showed 7,600 views on FabCityCrissy LinkedIn and Twitter, which has an active Transport industry following, and an amazing 140,000 views on MrBarricade's TikTok which has an engaged young following of transit advocates and influencers. The comments from the viewers stated "they have never considered driving the bus before, and now see it could be fun... I'll check it out". There were several transit agencies that reshared to bring awareness to their own driver shortage and it opened an industry dialogue around what to do about it. For a video that cost only $2,000 to make it was a huge success.
Why Submit: FabCityCrissy joined Optibus in 2021 and heard from many customers about ongoing driver shortages and how it was affecting their operations. So she decided to put her "very unique set of skills" to use and highlight these issues in a fun and informative music video. For a very little investment Optibus was able to draw attention to one of the biggest agency needs in recent history entirely for the benefit of agencies. We offered the use of the video free of charge and even offered to customize for any agency that wanted it's own workforce development website added. Collaborating with the viewers of a well known TikTok influencer took the storytelling to the target audience in a consumable way that they are more used to. It is a high production value, low cost, effective recruitment tool.