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Background: GolinHarris has worked with more than 25 state, national and international tobacco control programs and will provide a unique perspective on how their team’s experience in tobacco control have guided the earned, social and grassroots elements of the Tobacco Free Florida campaign, as well as providing strategic guidance on the overall direction of the media effort.
Program background: GolinHarris manages Tobacco Free Florida’s social media properties, which have been touted by independent evaluators and other leading groups in public health as leading the way in social media content development. GH will discuss the campaign’s grassroots event strategy, which is designed to complement the paid campaign—extending the program’s reach into Florida’s more rural communities. A laser focus on engagement guides the public relations efforts leveraged by the team on behalf of Tobacco Free Florida.
Evaluation Methods and Results: Campaign evaluators at RTI have reported that the campaign’s example in online media could benefit other tobacco control efforts across the country. The team has also helped to position the Bureau as the go-to news source for tobacco-related facts and information in the state. During the course of our work, we have yielded more than 100 million media impressions and have positioned Bureau spokespeople as reliable sources of data and trends in tobacco control. We have set precedents for social media, growing the Twitter followers by approximately 670 percent And the brand’s Facebook page by 74.1 percent with more than 231,000 fans.
Conclusions: As part of a comprehensive tobacco control program, public relations efforts can amplify the engagement elements of a mass media campaign.
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.