Smoking on the rise among youth

RSEQ is an organization that promotes healthy living for students from elementary school to university. Tobacco is its biggest issue. Although the number of smokers in the overall population is down, the proportion of smokers is on the rise among students aged 17 to 24, who may believe smoking represents empowerment, a sense of being in control of one’s life.

The objective was to highlight the fact that kids are being manipulated by the tobacco industry, which stops at nothing to get them hooked on cigarettes through, among other things, addictive chemicals, product positioning, and marketing strategies.

We needed to find a subject that interested young people in order for them to listen to our message. What is the one thing enough 17- to 24-year-olds have in common? Romance. Intense relationships. Falling in and out of love. We decided to use the analogy of a romance turned toxic to get them involved in the conversation.

We knew they spent a lot of time on social media so we deployed most of the campaign there. First, we had teasers that featured different characters (a mother, a friend) sharing their concerns about someone’s seemingly toxic romantic relationship.

Then, the reveal came in the form of a beautiful video which created a parallel between addiction to toxic relationships and cigarettes. Cues were spread out throughout the video, and eventually we revealed cigarettes as the true villain.

All messages revealed the insidious and sly nature of cigarette addiction.

With smoking on the rise in this age group, getting around our target’s mindset was the main focus of our strategy.

These young adults (17-24) feel invincible and do not want to be lectured. They believe that they are in complete control of their lives. Our campaign had to convince them otherwise and make them realize that the tobacco industry is holding them captive in a toxic relationship.

So we chose to stay away from the moral high ground and, instead, employ a message that seemingly had nothing to do with cigarettes.

The approach aimed to first make the target audience more receptive, and then deliver the true awareness message about cigarettes.

We covered all touchpoints with thumb-stopping creative. The video was romantic, poetic, and artistic, and allowed us to cut down into many hard-working formats.

The right time

The campaign came out shortly after back-to-school when our audience was more attentive.

Multi-format, multi-platform

Present with thumb-stopping content all along the customer journey, our multi-phase campaign reached our young adult audience primarily through social media and advertising in colleges and universities.

One-two punch strategy

First we drove intrigue with short, catchy teasers on Instagram and Snapchat, hinting to some sort of toxic relationship. Then, we revealed cigarettes as the actual partner in the toxic relationship through long-format videos on YouTube and Facebook.

Engaging visual language

We dropped typical advertising codes and delivered our message more like a short film. We created suspense and intrigue: raw lighting, atmospheric inserts of the two lovers in symbiosis, and breathing in the soundtrack, which made it enticing while alluding to puffing a cigarette.

Print ads placed throughout colleges and universities in Québec closed the loop, driving back to social media.

Past campaign benchmarks were smashed.

With comprehension, appreciation, and credibility as indicators that youth will either never start or will quit smoking, this campaign is a tremendous success!

Comprehension: 86% (benchmark: 66%)

Appreciation: 81% (benchmark: 62%)

Credibility: 84% (benchmark: 65%).

Clarity of message: 83% (benchmark: 70%)

It was all about engaging this finicky target. Our one-two punch approach delivered as expected: Audience was drawn into the teasers and followed through to view the longer formats.

Media performance

Teaser

Snapchat: At 3.77%, our click-through rate was 2 X higher than industry benchmark.

Facebook and Instagram: even higher at 4.46% click-through rate

Reveal

Facebook and Youtube: Completion rate was 25% higher than benchmark (10,5% vs 7,50%)