Everyone knows smoking kills. But few think about what it’s like to live with the effects of a tobacco-related disease. Our campaign shows real victims of tobacco. From their own personal experiences these former smokers give current smokers helpful 'Tips' on dealing with their lives if smoking leaves them in the same condition.

The six-month campaign, launched in February 2013, was driven by a robust national media plan using a multimedia strategy:

• TV/Video to drive consumer awareness

• Digital properties to hone in on core smokers and target based on behaviours

• Local market heavy-up to add additional support in high-prevalence markets

• PSA advertising to achieve greater reach and frequency

• Earned media to ensure front-and-center coverage in top-tier media markets

This isn’t another campaign about dying from smoking. It’s about living with it. Before smoking kills people they’ll live with the ramifications of many diseases. This campaign gives the smokers “tips” on how to deal with that. No other campaign has approached smoking in this way. It’s game changing. And nothing could be more appropriate for a government health agency than using reality to prove their case. The truth of it all is what’s shocking.

We know from government research studies that a short-term increase in calls to the "Tips Campaign" quit line and unique visitors to the “Tips Campaign” website help more people successfully quit in the long-term.

A total of 352,848 calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW occurred during the 2013 campaign, for a weekly average of 22,053 calls. This represents a 75% increase above what would have been expected during the four weeks before the campaign.

Nearly 2.9 million unique visitors accessed the "Tips Campaign" website during the 2013 campaign, for a weekly average of 179,254 visitors. This represents a nearly 38-fold increase above what would have been expected during the four weeks before the campaign.