creating space for life-saving conversations

In Oklahoma, teens are vaping at an alarming rate. 21.8% of Oklahoma high school students report vaping in the last 30 days, while middle and high school students also report using a variety of other tobacco products. These statistics often well exceed national averages, indicating a need for drastic change in Oklahoma. Many parents are unaware that their kids are actively vaping, have tried vaping or are considering trying vaping. Kids report starting to vape as young as 11 years old, often without their parents’ knowledge, as only 40% of parents with children who vape are aware of the issue.

Many parents don’t understand the impact of a simple conversation. Our research indicates that conversations with kids about the dangers of tobacco can create significant change and contribute toward increased youth tobacco cessation and decreased youth tobacco use initiation. These conversations lead to more informed kids who are less likely to initiate tobacco/nicotine use and more likely to quit.

Our client, the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, asked us to address this issue and encourage more conversations between adults and kids about tobacco. So, we created the Talk About Tobacco campaign, which targeted Oklahoma parents and caregivers with education and encouragement, prompting conversations and delivering resources aimed at reducing youth addiction.

The Talk About Tobacco campaign educates parents about the realities of youth tobacco use and the harsh truths behind teen addiction, making them aware of the need for a conversation with their kids about tobacco. Through urgent messages designed to encourage and empower adults to take the next steps toward a conversation, the campaign guided audience members through the funnel to Talk About Tobacco’s abundant library of resources.

The Talk About Tobacco campaign employed a multi-media messaging approach that included media on TV, radio, billboards, print, web and over 15 digital, social, paid and organic tactics. These messages drove Oklahomans to the campaign website where they were met with Talk About Tobacco’s resource library.

These resources, all designed to help adults have these conversations, included age-specific conversation guides, informative blogs, videos from local parents with advice and encouragement, a tobacco product one-sheeter, classroom resources such as worksheets and posters, an online interactive learning game and more. These resources equipped audience members with support and assets to feel comfortable to execute a successful conversation. All resources were backed with in-depth research and supporting information that made the user journey seamless and allowed for easy adoption of campaign assets.

In the first month of the campaign:

Social Video: Talk About Tobacco social videos concluded the first flight with a 47% view rate, exceeding its 30% View Rate KPI. All videos individually performed better than the KPI and generated a total of 279,191 thru plays.

TrueView for Action: Talk About Tobacco TrueView tactic finished flight 1 with a 76% view rate, exceeding its 50% view rate KPI as well. This tactic generated a total of 1,799,269 views.

OTT & Programmatic: Talk About Tobacco OTT & Programmatic tactics generated a combined 90% Video Completion Rate, and 4,489,840 video completions.

Conversions (resource/asset utilization): Talk About Tobacco Campaign generated a total of 2,440 new conversions, and saw impressive performance across all other awareness/engagement driven tactics.