Campaign: Stop Smoking Campaign for Cambridge County Council
Company: Cambridge County Council
Location: Cambridge
Sector: Public Sector
Problem
Most children and adults are aware of the health risks associated with cigarette smoking. Despite sophisticated campaigns by charities such as Cancer Research (that also include mainstream media support for example Stand up to Cancer on Channel 4) people are still taking up cigarette smoking.
The impact on the health service is well known but many people are not aware of the other public services resources that smoking puts pressure on. These services include street cleaning, fire services, mental health and bereavement support. As a result the County Council wanted to tackle the perception of smoking to reduce uptake and encourage people to stop.
Challenges
Smoking impacts all ages, from children to the elderly who have lost family members to smoking related illnesses. The younger generations have grown up in a world where smoking means exclusion from social settings yet still take it up. So the campaign needed to target a wide demographic across age and socioeconomic groups as well as a large geographic area.
Goal
To create a high impact, hard hitting emotive campaign that could be used across multiple marketing channels to encourage people of all ages to stop smoking.
Measurement
In order to measure the effectiveness of the campaign two indicators were used:
- The call to action was to request a Quit Kit;
quantity of requests was recorded. - Social media reach and engagement
Cambridgeshire County Council also wanted to create a social impact with the images and message so that the campaign would be talked about. While anecdotal feedback is less measurable it provides valuable insight into the emotional response of the campaign.
Solution
Cambridge County Council consulted with a respected public health professional to develop the basis for improving public healthy within the county, from this Breadcrumb Media developed the BeWell brand and were retained to produce a creative campaign with a strong narrative to communicate the goals of the Stop Smoking initiative.
The team brainstormed the emotions related to smoking and the effect they have on the smoker as well as their family and friends. We were inspired by what matters to many people – such as physical appearance and fear of missing out (FOMO).
Smoking can mean exclusion from homes, pubs, restaurants, sporting venues etc and at its most extreme death. We used the thought of missing out on a historic sporting moment, being a grandparent, being at your child’s wedding, or simply enjoying a moment with your loved one as the basis for the campaign. In terms of physical appearance it creates an unpleasant smell on skin, breath, clothes and hair as well as accelerating the ageing process.
Our intention was to create a strong emotional response.
We presented a range of visuals that were aimed at different audiences which helped our client focus on the demographics they wanted to target. The emotive visuals were then combined with hard hitting copy to tackle the evidence that older, long term smokers are not motivated by messages about health risks, we needed to make it about the impact of their loss. Research indicated that younger smokers are influenced by social opportunities and their appearance.
This process was key to defining the final over all campaign. From this a selection of visuals were selected by Cambridge County Council to target the following groups:
- Parents
- Grandparents
- Young People
The client’s aim was to reach as many Cambridgeshire residents as possible and therefore the campaign needed to include offline marketing to reach smokers where and when they smoke. So in addition to the social media campaign graphics were produced to be used on the back of buses and posters at bus stops.
Drivers were targeted by using the advertising opportunities at petrol pumps, while smoking is prohibited at garages many people smoke in their vehicles.
Assets
We created a range of assets for this campaign which included:
- Videos
- Website Banners
- Social Media graphics
- Written social content
- Roller Banner graphics
- Outdoor media – bus stop posters, petrol pump nozzles and bus graphics
Results
The campaign was a HUGE success. To see more about this campaign visit the Be Well website here.
Testimonial
“Breadcrumb Media were a great support in getting this campaign off the ground. They were professional and responsive often working to tight deadlines.
“They also helped solve problems by following some of the assets through to print. I look forward to working with them again on future campaigns.”
Matthew Hall
Communications and Marketing Manager
Cambridgeshire County Council
If you would like marketing and content support for your next campaign then get in touch to chat with the team.
