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Smoking has always been considered cool. Why? Because it is dangerous and combined with the right people (actors, musicians, models, influencers) you get a look that screams cool. And cigarette companies have been “lucky” in the sense that they got a lot of free branding from the right people.

The problem is that young people look up to these celebrities and influencers - and imitate them.

So we decided to replace cigarettes with lollipops. Create buzz about lollipops by placing them in the mouths of celebrities and not telling anyone why. If we could make lollipops something to talk about then we could illustrate why a lot of people start smoking.

Because; Hey, if you can look just as cool with a lollipop in your mouth as you can with a cigarette, then it is not the cigarette that makes the difference – it is who you are.

Hence, you can be "cool without smoking".

It started with the production of handmade lollipops made from natural ingredients and no added sugar.

Then we placed/seeded the lollipops at music festivals, in fashion magazines, in a music video etc.

After this we sent direct mails to 100 celebrities and influencers. The DM explained the idea, had a personalized handwritten message for each recipient and 50 lollipops in 3 different flavours. They now started posting pictures on their social channels using only #slikkepind (#lollipop) and we reached the critical social reach numbers where the press started covering the story - asking why lollipops were a trend?!

Now The Danish Cancer Society started doing PR about the campaign and we launched a nationwide integrated campaign featuring 13 ambassadors looking cool with a lollipop. Celebrity social posts kept the buzz going.

Finally, a tactical element was added in step 2 with a "download app" CTA to help the smokers quit.

We sent a direct mail (lollipops and personalized notes) to 100 ambassadors and got a positive response rate (= persons posting pictures of themselves with lollipops) of 49.

Since we do not handle any of the celebrities’ or influencers’ social channels, all we know is that of the ones participating there was a combined reach on both Instagram and Facebook of approx. 2 mill. for each channel.

Impressions:

PR: +17 million

Media: +25 million

Social media (UNPAID): +110 million

That is an average of 27 impressions per Dane

(Population Denmark: 5.6 million)

KPI results:

- Reflecting whether smoking is cool: 22% (target: 10%)

- Found the message relevant: 79% (target: 50%)

- Ad liking: 64% (target: 50%)

App downloads: +10,000 by end of 2015 (target: 7,500 by end of 2016)

Press stories: +150

Active app users (i.e. users who are following a quit smoking track): Approx. 50% (no target)

This campaign relied heavily on celebrity and influencer participation. We needed to get them to help spread the message to young people - a group who listens much more to their idols than to brands and organisations.

So to do get the celebrities and influencers on board we sent direct mails to them and / or their managers. Only if they responded positively to the direct mail would our campaign work.

The target group was young people aged 14-25.

A nationwide study showed that there had only been a small drop in the number of young people who smoke regularly and an increase in the number of occasional smokers.

If we created a classic media campaign young people would probably just ignore the campaign. They are immune to scare tactics and organizations telling to quit. So we had to do things in another way; by being positive and nudging them.

So we started with a secret social experiment and then followed with a media campaign.

The primary call to action was subtle: "Cool without a smoke". Make the young people make up their own minds – do not push them.

In the second phase we added a message: "Let's do something about your smoking habit". Again, we did not say "quit" or "stop" - just do something, it is their choice.

Despite the fact that everyone knows smoking is dangerous there has not been a significant change in the number of young smokers in Denmark in the past 20 years. In fact, the number of young occasional smokers has actually increased (occasional smokers are those who mainly smoke in social situations – and who often turn into regular smokers).

We were asked by the NGO The Danish Cancer Society to create a concept that would get young people to think about quitting smoking – or not start at all.

The main objectives of The Danish Cancer Society were:

Get 10% of the target group to consider whether smoking is actually cool.

Get 50% of the target group to find the campaign message relevant.

Get an ad liking of 50%.

And get 7,500 persons to download an app (that can help you quit smoking).