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The stark truth: cigarettes kill one in

two smokers

Andrea DickensDeputy Director

Smokefree South West13th June, 2014

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Smokefree South West

Tobacco Control Office for South West England collaboratively funded by 11 Local AuthoritiesAlso provides expertise, consultancy & resources in other areas

Evidence based interventions & innovative programmes

Social marketing & behaviour change campaigns

Our most recent campaign

Be There Tomorrow

Health harms and emotional consequences• Whilst DH ran these campaigns (Feb 2004 - Jan 2005) recorded

awareness of stop smoking campaigns was higher than it had ever been, at 78%.

• The same period also saw a dramatic rise in the number of smokers setting a quit date.

Local public opinion data

A public opinion survey was conducted.

Across the South West more than 9 out of 10 people (90.7%) surveyed were not aware that half of all smokers will die early from the habit.

Local breakdowns eg

•Devon… just over 1 in 10 (11.9%) of those questioned knew smoking-related diseases kill one in two smokers.

•Swindon… Less than 1 in 10 people (4.6%) of those questioned knew smoking-related diseases kill one in two smokers.

Be There Tomorrow Campaign

Launched directly after Public Health England’s new health harms campaign which highlighted the physical harm of smoking. Evidence suggests that running these two types of campaigns closely together, stimulates mass population quit attempts.

TV advert

Be There Tomorrow - outdoor

Somerford Road, Christ Church, Bournemouth

Trowbridge County Hall, Wiltshire

York Road, Swindon

Barton Road, Gloucestershire

TV news coverageOver £700k of PR valueUse of surveys and case studies

Be There Tomorrow PR Phase 1

Phase 1 Launch - to raise awareness that 1 in 2 smokers will die early•Localised press release for each area using local public opinion data and local quotes

•Authored article in the name of each local Director of Public Health

Be There Tomorrow PR Phase 2

Phase 2 used the more emotional statistics from this same survey including:

•Nearly 1 in 3 Devon smokers worry they will die before they see their children get married and the birth of their grandchildren•A quarter of Swindon smokers fear they will let their family down by dying early

Be There Tomorrow PR Phase 2

Phase 2 timed to coincide with National No Smoking Day on 12 March and the roll out of the outdoor media poster campaign

•Case studies used to reinforce the campaign messages

•Local emotional statistics from opinion poll used

Be There Tomorrow – local support

Communications toolkit – helped Local Authorities promote the campaign

•Campaign briefing

•Web banner advert for local websites

•Articles for local newsletters and websites

•Encouragement to do additional local PR

•Social media calendar – encouraged tweets

Be There Tomorrow – Results

Over 7000 people visited the website. Of these:

• 1660 people clicked through to order a Quit Kit or viewed their local Stop Smoking Service contact details

PR reached an audience of over 25 million (equivalent to every person living in the South West reading, seeing or hearing this coverage at least 5 times)

£700,000 generated

Be There Tomorrow - Results

60% verified ad awareness (480,000 smokers). Highest ever awareness for first burst in South West (HRT 47%, SFH 48%)

- 82% Plymouth, 67% Cornwall - 70% amongst those who made a quit attempt in last

year - 67% amongst 18-25 year olds

33% of our target audience (young families) claimed to have changed behaviour as a result of the campaign. Overall 26% of all smokers changed behaviour

- 37% Somerset and Cornwall - 38% amongst who made a quit attempt in last year

Over 200,000 more people now aware that one in two smokers will die early (9% to 14%)

Be There Tomorrow – response

We received the following email direct from a member of the public in Exeter. Great spontaneous endorsement of our social marketing

Thank you

Andrea.dickens@smokefreesouthwest.org.uk

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