Company: Tennessee District Attorneys Conference
Agency: McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations
Timeframe: September 2005--August 2006
Since the early 2000s, the abuse and manufacture of methamphetamine (better known as crystal meth, or simply meth) in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. Unlike
other narcotics such as cocaine, meth's rising popularity can be attributed to two key factors that, when combined, are profoundly dangerous: First, meth is extremely addictive,
often converting curious experiementers into serious addicts after just one try. Second, crystal meth can be easily manufactured domestically with common household materials,
including over-the-counter cold remedies like Sudafed.
In 2004, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen put together a task force that would inform the public about the dangers of the drug after the state of Tennessee closed down a record
number of meth labs.
Acting on this educational initiative, the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference turned to Nashville-based McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations--which has a
history of implementing public awareness programs--to help strategize and execute this yearlong campaign from September 2005 to August 2006.
This initially raises a key question: If meth abuse is such a widespread problem, why was the initiative's duration limited to one year?
"It only ran a year because it was funded by a government grant," says Katy Varney, partner at MP&F. "We the DAs knew at the onset that there was a finite amount of money
that could be devoted to this. Our governor had put a lot of money into eradicating this [problem] but much of it had gone into law enforcement, into testing, things for lab and
environmental protection stuff. A very small amount of money was set aside for public education."
According to Varney, the overall budget was $1.5 million, which the DAs had gotten from the state. Of that amount, MP&F was given $840,000 to run the campaign. The limited
funds, coupled with the limited amount of time, were obvious challenges, but there were others that were equally trying.
Just Say No
"Messaging was a real challenge for a number of reasons," explains Varney. "We knew what to say, but how to say it in a way that it would cut through the clutter of all the
anti-drug messages out there was something that was very difficult to get our arms around."
Varney also points to the fact that meth is a pervasive problem that touches everyone in affected communities.
"When I say everybody, I mean everybody, from employers to kids," she says. "We didn't want this to be pigeonholed as a teen problem or a gang drug problem or a white trailer
trash rural problem. Creating a campaign to do inside a year that had many messages to many different audiences and how you get all those messages into one campaign was extremely
complicated."
Meeting on a regular basis with the executive committee of the DA as well as the entire District Attorneys General Conference was an essential part of the campaign planning for
MP&F. Because Tennessee has 31 judicial districts, notes Varney, the state has 31 DAs. This made the paper trail throughout the course of the initiative very complex.
Kicking Meth To The Curb
To get things started, MP&F conducted research to determine what would be the most effective ways to reach the campaign's target audience of school-age children, parents
and the general public. Tactics the firm employed included:
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Focus groups across Tennessee with middle and high-school students as well as adults to test current knowledge of meth abuse;
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Telephone interviews with meth experts and recovering addicts inside and outside Tennessee; and,
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Written questionnaires completed by each of the state's 31 DAs to help MP&F determine how to tailor the campaign to each of the districts.
What MP&F discovered during the research process was that the students were most affected by images and stories showing the graphic effects of meth abuse, which can do
everything from making your teeth and hair fall out to causing hallucinations, extreme weight loss or stroke in users.
"Everything we heard from all our focus groups was that it's got to be real," recalls Varney. "[People would say], 'When I see [PSA speakers] that I know are actors, I don't
believe it. If you're going to convince me this is a problem, it has to be real.' Everybody we used [in the campaign] was a real meth addict in Tennessee."
To find the "success stories," MP&F created a portion on its Web site,
http://www.MethFree.TN.org, unveiled
on the same date that officially launched the campaign, which asked people to
share their stories. The response was unexpected and overwhelming for Varney
and her team.
"We kind of put it there on the Web site as a lark in the beginning," admits Varney. "[In addition to the Web site], we also found [success stories] through law enforcement. We
talked to the DAs and asked them whom they have persecuted and whom they know. We made a lot of calls. It was shocking how many people wanted to tell their story so that no one
else would make the same mistake."
In addition to asking people to share their stories, the Web site included information about meth, where to go to get help with addiction, how to report suspected meth
production, video messages from the state DAs, meth-related new stories, a list of campaign providers and ways to sign up for the Anti-Meth Task Force. (More than 2,000 people
have joined the task force thus far.)
A Raw Vision
To create the look and visceral feel of the campaign, MP&F devised materials that would have a theme, logo and a tagline, "Meth Destroys," in it. The materials were created
to have a rough aesthetic to blend with the harsh-looking visuals depicting meth abusers. During school visits and presentations to civic groups, the DAs would distribute the
materials.
They were also sent to every public middle and high school in the state, as well as health departments, farm bureau offices and children services offices. These efforts in turn
produced youth and adult brochures, DVDs, bumper stickers, window decals, shared stories booklets, posters, "Meth Mouth" symptoms sheets and teacher's guides.
To further leverage the advertising of the campaign and increase its profile in the state, MP&F arranged with the Outdoor Advertising Association of Tennessee to post
campaign-specific billboards throughout the state. The sum total was 31 billboards. Also developed were radio and TV public service announcements featuring Tennesseans who are
recovering meth addicts and their family members. Via a partnership with the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters, the PSAs were played more than 14,000 times during the campaign
period.
Supporting Sobriety
The partners the campaign picked up were critical in spreading its message.
"We ended up getting 50 real partners in the campaign with us," says Varney. "When I say real, I mean people who actually gave something and worked in so many ways to [heighten
the effectiveness of] the campaign. I think the meaningful part of the partnership happened at the grassroots level. The Girl Scouts became a partner and created a Meth Destroys
badge. We were able to drill that down into the 31 judicial districts so the DAs would go to the Girl Scouts and present the badges."
She also points to the dental, medical associations and hospitals that joined in the fight and became vehicles for spreading the initiative's important messages.
"A lot of the things we would normally spend money on," Varney says, "we were able to get partners to do that work for us and save a lot of money."
To note the official launch date of the campaign--November 7, 2005--MP&F kicked off a week-long event at a Tennessee school in which Governor Bredesen, the program's
campaign partners, DAs and teachers spoke at an assembly. Afterward, a news conference was held.
To facilitate discussion among Tennessee youth about meth abuse and what they can do to help educate their peers about the effects of the drug, MP&F worked with the DAs to
recruit high school students for the Meth Destroys Youth Leadership Council and participate in the YLC Summit. On April 25, 2006, more than 150 YLC members joined Governor
Bredesen, the campaign partners, DAs and former meth addicts at a daylong conference.
A Message More Addictive Than Meth
Throughout the campaign period, MP&F sent at least one news release per month to all state media and the Associated Press; it also produced a cycle of letters to the
editor, guest columns and radio spots for each DA.
For Varney, getting the word out to the media wasn't easy from a logistics perspective considering they were dealing with 31 judicial districts.
"We had to write 31 different media plans each tailored to that district's DA and to that district in terms of getting a unified statewide message," she says. "Everytime we did
that, we had to have 31 different quotes and we had to understand the deadlines of all the different media inside those districts and they all have different deadlines. The lesson
learned there was that it took a lot of arms and legs and a lot of organization."
The campaign's return-on-investment was impressive on all counts:
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The Meth Destroys program netted 10 million media impressions;
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From its launch on November 7, 2005, to August 31, 2006, the campaign Web site received more than 4 million hits; and
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With the help of more than 50 partners, the campaign reached an additional 600,000 people through newsletters and e-mail blasts.
By the end of 2006, due to the initiatives implemented by the Meth Destroys campaign, the state of Tennessee reported a nearly 50% decrease in meth lab seizures, indicating
multiple steps in the right direction to eradicate meth manufacture, abuse and addiction. PRN
CONTACT:
Katy Varney, [email protected]
Measuring From Start To Finish
Notwithstanding the success of the Meth Destroys campaign, there was one overlooked measurement element that became an important lesson learned, says Katy Varney, partner at
McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations:
"We should have measured how we had moved public awareness in our effort to get going very quickly in the beginning," she says. "We didn't do any statewide survey to have a
benchmark of what people knew about the drug and the problem. At the end, we decided not to do a survey because we didn't have anything to measure. We know how many media
impressions we got and the problem dropped drastically. We know that we made a difference but we couldn't measure it through research, and I would give anything if we had taken a
poll in the beginning and a survey at the end."