I’m so fortunate to have had a chance to partner with such talented people and make such an impact:
”The Real Cost” campaign has prevented up to 587,000 youth from initiating smoking and will save the U.S. more than $53 billion by reducing smoking-related costs like early loss of life, costly medical care, lost wages, lower productivity and increased disability. The campaign saved $180 for every $1 invested.” source
Targeted to “at risk” teenagers, the FDA's tobacco prevention campaign needed a strong digital presence. After a year of collecting analytics and A/B website testing, we combined those learnings with learnings from our Tumblr campaign to completely overhaul the site and optimize the experience. Bringing in a conceptual tie to our TV spots, including in-your-face GIFs, and keeping content "bite-sized" allowed us to connect with teens better, dramatically reducing bounce rates and increasing time spent on site.
The site was built in-house, completely responsively, addressing the need to reach our target on their mobile device – which accounts for over 50% of our traffic. Of course, bite-size content bits also work wonderfully here, letting the user scroll through engaging and exciting micro-experiences.
We leveraged the spooky, horror-movie-esque feel of our TV spots to create an entire campaign on Instagram. Creatures, as a metaphor for cigarettes, attack high schoolers. Our Instagram sponsored ads piqued the interest of Instagram users with creepy and mysterious posts that enticed them to tap through to get the whole story. When they did, they could explore a whole world where toxic Creatures take hold of teens and poison them, and a few smoking facts mixed in. Everything here laddering up to the premise that if cigarettes looked as scary as they are, you'd #RunLikeHell.
The combination of the concept and the platform worked magic saw higher than anticipated engagement rates.