As friends and family are key in a smoker’s battle with tobacco, we established our campaign home in their social home, Facebook.

We then embedded the iCoach, an online app proven to increase smoking cessation, within this Facebook community. To generate excitement, we created a competition with renowned photographer Rankin to find 27 country faces to become our EU campaign content.We centred our campaign Online, using TV and Print to drive consideration, and key partners to build stature.

Online utilised home-page takeovers, video, search & display, to act as our conversion channel.Print added impact and maintained dialogue through Metro International cover-wraps, multiple executions and use of influential editorial.We aired TV ads and seeded them virally. We created station take-overs of Eurosport, and vignettes of sports’ stars encouraging people to stop smoking.Throughout, Facebook acted as our campaign home, bringing our activity together and amplifying the message socially.

Tracking showed a 171% increase in ‘definite smoking cessation intent’ amongst those who had seen the campaign vs those who hadn’t.We exceeded hard targets: iCoach Registrations +30.5%; and smoking Quit Rates +41.4%.Even more significant was the monetary success, a €271million saving in EU health-service costs, owing to a lowered incidence of tobacco related disease amongst our ex-smokers.Though this number is a life-time saving and not a year one saving, this highlights the enduring power of a fresh advertising approach.Campaign ROI is 49:1, but ultimately the real winners are our ex-smokers with a lifetime of healthier living ahead.