CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW
THE FACTS NOW is a youth tobacco prevention campaign that the Florida Department of Health launched in 2015. This campaign was designed to prevent those between the ages of 13 and 24 in Florida from experimenting with tobacco products, and to expose the tobacco industry’s (“Big Tobacco”) lies. THE FACTS NOW aims to impact the audience’s knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs around tobacco, in an effort to change their behavior.
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In recent years this campaign has shifted in several ways as the battle against big tobacco evolved, e-cigarettes took the market by storm and the social media landscape advanced. The pressure was on for THE FACTS NOW to quickly rethink marketing tactics to stay relevant with youth and young adults and break through the noise on social channels with authentic behavior changing content.
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While a lot of work has been done to educate about the dangers of e-cigarettes, there continues to be a high usage rate among youth. “... Our nation’s youth continue to be enticed and hooked by an expanding variety of e-cigarette brands delivering flavored nicotine,” said Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, in a statement. “Our work is far from over.”
SITUATION ANALYSIS
A lot has changed in the tobacco industry since the rise and takeover of the popular e-cigarette brand Juul. Since JUUL’s conception, regulation of e-cigarette products has proven to be a challenge since there were still many unknowns about these nicotine-based devices. As studies continued to uncover the correlation between physical and mental health effects in youth and young adults and the use of e-cigarettes, the FDA cracked down on the sale of what seemed to be the driving factor behind hooking youth into trying and continuing to use these products: flavors. With the FDA’s ban on the sale of pod-based e-cigarettes with youth-friendly flavors, companies like JUUL needed to find a loophole.
Suddenly, an onslaught of disposable e-cigarette brands began popping up with exciting new flavors, all sleeker and cooler looking than the next, ALL unregulated. However, the push to get these products in the hands of youth and young adults didn’t stop with the design or ingredients of the device. E-cigarette brands once again took to popular outlets in order to put their devices in front of the right eyes. E-cigarettes could be found in TV shows, movies, and social platforms that were rising in popularity with the youth audience like Snapchat and TikTok. As the new generation became addicted and dependent on these new products, they started looking for help.
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This was a pivotal moment for THE FACTS NOW campaign. Now more than ever, content was needed to disrupt the target audience’s feed, provide awareness about the dangers of disposable e-cigarettes and provide resources to help youth quit.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Gen-Z is a well-tapped market for brands, and you could even say at this point this audience is tapped out. Given the recent pandemic, the social climate and the constant bombardment of ads on social platforms, Gen-Z's attention is fleeting and they have formed a keen eye on deciphering classic ads from engaging content they find relevant. Now more than ever, this audience is looking to destress, identify healthier habits and indulge in immersive experiences. Gen-Z gravitates toward brands with authentic voices and content that can support, educate, relate and entertain them. The social space itself continues to evolve but has become more saturated over time. With the development and launch of the Metaverse, the world of gaming and virtual reality has been taken to a new level, challenging brands like THE FACTS NOW to find new ways to captivate their already overstimulated audiences.
STRATEGY
In order to effectively connect with the campaign’s target audience, we needed to understand where they were spending their time, what key messages resonated with them and how we could deliver these messages in a way that would catch their attention. Audience research and social listening were key elements in further developing THE FACTS NOW’s campaign strategy and messaging pillars.
Through this research, THE FACTS NOW identified the need of a 360 campaign complete with social, digital and in-person touchpoints. To further increase the campaign’s effectiveness, we needed to reprioritize social channels and shift its creative approach to encompass a full circle experiences that would captivate and resonate with the audience.
CREATED AND LAUNCHED cessation services and materials specific to youth and young adults using e-cigarettes.
DEVELOPED a suite of assets that would drive youth and young adults to the new text-to-quit program and website landing page.
PRODUCED 50 TikTok-style assets to jump into trends and conversations in real time.
SPONSORED several youth focused in-person events around Florida.
COLLABORATED with Snapchat to bring a new interactive filter to the platform, allowing users to virtually build their own toxic vape and learn about the dangerous ingredients found in e-cigarettes.
PRIORITIZED YouTube long-format videos to further educate the audience, addressing questions from community management.
EXECUTION & TACTICS
THE FACTS NOW’s 360 campaign included a strong focus on digital and social content to increase the visibility and effectiveness of the campaign’s messaging with the target audience. To maximize the campaign’s creative capabilities and maintain a strong presence on our priority social channels, our team developed an in-house creative studio to aid production. This studio helped to support a new authentic style of filming that was native to the Gen-Z audience and gave us the ability to nimbly jump into trends. Social and digital content played a key role in driving awareness and engagement at in-person events.
Our team relied heavily on audience insights from events and social listening to better understand our audience’s needs and to tailor our campaign’s messaging.
Over the past year, THE FACTS NOW 360 campaign successfully:
EFFECTIVENESS & RESULTS
There’s a long way to go in undoing the massive damage that the vaping industry has caused. We are proud to say that our work with this campaign has played a huge role in decreasing the vaping rates in Florida, especially between 2018 to 2022. While there are other contributing factors, we can prove that our campaign was effective through the following stats:
YOUTH VAPING RATES AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN FLORIDA DECREASED BY 38.7% BETWEEN 2018 AND 2022
YOUTH VAPING RATES AMONG MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN FLORIDA DECREASED BY 15.4% BETWEEN 2018 AND 2022
THE RATE AT WHICH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WERE TRYING E-CIGARETTES DECREASED BY 29.0% BETWEEN 2018 AND 2022
THE RATE AT WHICH MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS WERE TRYING E-CIGARETTES DECREASED BY 9.5% BETWEEN 2018 AND 2022
ON PAID MEDIA, THE VIDEOS GENERATED 337 MILLION+ IMPRESSIONS AND 48 MILLION+ VIDEO VIEWS
TO FLORIDA'S 1.8 MILLION 13 TO 24 YEAR OLDS OVER THE COURSE OF THE 2021 FISCAL YEAR
BRAND AWARENESS OF THE FACTS NOW IN FLORIDA IS 76% AMONG YOUTH AND 86% AMONG YOUNG ADULTS, HIGHER THAN THE REAL COST AND TRUTH, MUCH BETTER FUNDED, NATIONAL CAMPAIGNS.
While we have made progress, our fight is not over yet.
There is still work to be done.
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