Tobacco Free Florida: Bringing CDC Best Practices to Life (Part I)

Background:  Alma DDB was selected as the media vendor for the Tobacco Free Florida campaign in 2010 in partnership with OMD, one of the top global media strategy and buying agencies and GolinHarris, a leading public relations firm and recognized tobacco control expert.  Alma DDB is part of DDB Worldwide, one of the oldest and largest national advertising agencies in the world.  Alma was named Multicultural Agency of the Year for 2014 by Advertising Age. 

Program background:  Alma DDB manages the advertising campaign for Tobacco Free Florida which includes creative strategy and development, media strategy and buying led by OMD, and public relations and social media campaign management led by GolinHarris. The team deploys a comprehensive approach to the media campaign. Every step is guided by the CDC’s Best Practices, as mandated by the legislation that established the BTFF. The team is focused on ensuring that the campaign messages and themes are pulled through all the marketing disciplines (advertising, events, earned media, and social media). This comprehensive view allows for the campaign to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, engagement and efficacy. The team manages cessation and prevention campaigns and predominantly relies on existing, proven-effective creative through the CDC’s MCRC and other state and national tobacco control programs to maximize the efficiency of the media campaign—spending less on production and more on getting the message out to the tobacco user through the media buy.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  According to the campaign evaluator, RTI International, Tobacco Free Florida campaign awareness and use of effective messaging over sustained periods of time is directly associated with increased quit attempts.  The TFF campaign is rarely "off-air", running virtually year-round. In addition, use of TFF’s “3 Free & Easy Ways to Quit” has significantly and steadily increased over the past 5 years.  The Quitline, Web Coach® and AHEC programs served 26,702 tobacco users in 2008 and 72,963 in 2013.  Providing people with the proven quit resources is the path to true behavior change. Lastly, as of 2013, prevalence of tobacco use in Florida is at an all-time low for both youth and adults.

Conclusions: Strategic use of proven creative through the CDC's MCRC and other tobacco control programs can increase the efficiency of the overall mass media campaign as part of a larger comprehensive tobacco control program. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  There are few tobacco control programs in the U.S. right now that are well funded and able to closely follow CDC Best Practices.  The Tobacco Free Florida campaign has been in existence for six years and has measureable results that can help inform the development of other state campaigns both in tobacco control and in other behavior change efforts.