Using the voices of children who live with smokers, the Kansas Health Foundation (KHF) delivered a hard-hitting, plain-spoken message about second-hand smoke that reached more than 20 million in the market and got smokers to "take it outside."
The $2 million campaign, launched last year, took a different approach to raising awareness about the litany of health dangers involved with second-hand smoke and children.
Firstly, it avoided the do-gooder aim of most non-smoking campaigns which stress quitting the habit. Instead, the campaign's central tenet was if you choose to smoke, "Take it outside!" when smoking around children.
Secondly, KHF's marketing objectives from the outset were to launch a fully integrated campaign using paid advertising as opposed to relying on PSAs to get the word out. "The foundation was very forward-thinking, they made a real dollar commitment [to the educational effort] much like a new product launch," says Tammy Allen, account manager for Sullivan Higdon & Sink (SHS), the Wichita, Kan.-based agency that launched the campaign.
Last month, the campaign earned three Bronze Telly awards for its TV commercials. The Telly Awards is a national competition that recognizes non-network and cable TV commercials.
Preaching Doesn't Work
Market research found that 40% of Kansas children under the age of 8 live in homes with smokers. And focus groups of smokers and non-smokers indicated that sermonizing and "preachy" anti-smoking health messages were ineffective.
Smokers were sick of being treated like lepers and were defensive about their "right to smoke." "They had high exposure to all of the scientific information, so we had to treat them with respect," says Bob Hamrick, SHS's assistant creative director.
In addition to the focus groups, the SHS team also conducted additional research involving:
- Web chat rooms discussing anti-smoking initiatives and tobacco debates;
- Surveys outside of tobacco shops to get smokers' perspectives on second-hand smoke.
Given what SHS and KHF learned about smokers' attitudes, the campaign's objectives focused on an emotionally-charged call to action on sparing children of tobacco smoke through an integrated marketing effort driven by TV and reinforced by radio, print, outdoor and PR initiatives involving schools and special events.
Wichita Pilot
The campaign started in April 1997 with a $1 million six-month pilot in Wichita, the state's largest target market. Wichita was pivotal because its TV stations reach two-thirds of the state, says Tami Bradley, KHF's VP of communications. The $600,000 advertising campaign achieved immediate market impact boosting target awareness on second-hand smoke to 77% from 21% with TV alone. The overall integrated campaign increased awareness to 51% from 37%, according to Bradley.
The hard-hitting "take it outside" message resulted in local radio stations parodying the campaign soon after its launch and the Wichita Eagle newspaper ran a minimally edited Op-ed by Marni Vliet, KHF's president within the first two weeks.
The campaign expanded to a $2 million statewide effort, midway through the pilot. On the state level the message still resonated, except in Kansas City - a more competitive market - where PR efforts lost a little steam.
Switching Gears
Because the campaign achieved high exposure earlier than anticipated, the SHS/KHF team cut back on its TV advertising presence to prevent over-saturation.
The team also decided to downplay additional PR tactics and focus on one special media event-a news conference at the Wichita State University Child Development Center. This event, which announced a massive direct mail program targeting child care workers throughout the state, featured a class of children planting small flowers as a symbolic thank you for "taking it outside."
The campaign also used non-traditional vehicles to reinforce the messages, including:
- A Web site contest promotion that targeted children in grades K-3 for school computers. So far, the site has generated 12,000 hits.
- Movie theater ads.
- Wichita bus advertising, including bus benches.
By the end of the campaign, parents and children felt empowered to discuss a topic that had previously been considered taboo, says Hamrick, who believes the overall message and approach has national application. (SHS, Bob Hamrick, Tammy Allen, 316/263-0124; KHF, Tami Bradley, 316/262-7676)
Rapid Impact Requires Less Intrusive Approach
The Kansas Health Foundation's (KHF) "Take It Outside" campaign enjoyed instant awareness which is a good problem to have but one that requires media tweaking well into the marketing plan. Refocus the plan by:
- reducing the TV presence;
- increasing presence on less intrusive media like outdoor, print radio;
- looking at targeted Web opportunities to reinforce core messages; and
- downsizing PR efforts to concentrate on a few well-focused press events.
Source: KHS/SHS