The situation
Job Today had been in the NYC market for a year. Employers were signing up, but job seekers weren't applying fast enough — the platform's core value proposition (candidates arriving in minutes after a job post) wasn't happening. With only 10–20 applicants in the first hour after a post, employers weren't converting or sticking around.
The CEO secured a significant OOH buy — ⅓ of all NYC subway car cards, platform two-sheets, and street-level entrance signs. The brief landed with five days to go.
The gap
Nobody in NYC knew what Job Today was. We couldn't afford to be abstract or brand-first — we needed to explain what the product did and make people want it, in the same breath, across placements where dwell time ranged from two seconds at a street entrance to ten minutes inside a subway car.
Most brands default to one message everywhere. That was a wasted opportunity.
The strategic insight
We couldn't give ourselves permission to be a brand — we weren't known yet. So instead of spreading values, we spread utility: messaging calibrated to the specific dwell time and mindset of each placement type. The subway journey itself became the media plan.
My role
Content Manager / Marketing Manager — co-led with the CEO, executed with one designer.
What I did
- 1Mapped the subway journey as a messaging funnel. Street-level entrances got glance-format creative — one idea, high contrast, zero dwell time needed. Platform two-sheets and in-car cards got storytelling — room to explain the product and connect emotionally.
- 2Wrote messaging for both sides of the marketplace simultaneously — employers and job seekers — without diluting either. A single subway journey could hit both audiences depending on placement type.
- 3Adapted the visual language from the Meta campaign running in parallel — cartoon-style characters in relatable job-search scenarios — into a comic-style identity built for static OOH and NYC's visual environment.
- 4Delivered everything in five days — concept, copy, design direction, and production-ready assets — with one designer.
- 5Extended the campaign into 2025 with a sustained smaller budget, repurposed as always-on brand support for performance digital campaigns.
The proof
All metrics compare campaign months (September–October 2024) against the pre-campaign baseline (August 2024). November data confirms the uplift was campaign-driven — all metrics returned to baseline once the OOH came down.
+59%
Job applications, first campaign month
+40%
New job seeker registrations
+215%
New employer registrations at peak week
+230%
Good publishers (Day 1) at peak week
23→51
Applicants per job on Day 1 at peak week
2024–25
Extended into 2025 as always-on support
The so what
The campaign worked well enough to extend into 2025 and earn a national industry award nomination — one of five finalists across the US. A one-off activation became an always-on presence, and the creative framework built in five days held up for over a year. That only happens when the insight behind the work is right.