"Free the Night" - an Action-Oriented, Digital Policy Campaign to Engage the Public in Voluntary Policy Change

Background: In Oklahoma, smoking in bars is the norm and legislative policy change has proven difficult. Despite this, a small number of bars have voluntarily chosen to go smokefree. This shift presents an opportunity to foster a groundswell of consumer-driven change.

Launched in 2013, Free The Night (FTN) is a statewide campaign funded by the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust to encourage bars to voluntarily adopt smokefree policies. The campaign utilizes a blend of digital and offline strategies to build momentum statewide, drive coordinated and frequent online and offline action, and recognize smokefree bars to incentivize more bars to go smokefree.

Program background: FTN drives smokefree bar and club supporters to use the power of the dollar to incentivize bars to go smokefree and support them once they’ve made the switch.

When a bar converts, FTN organizes a “Club By Storm” to mobilize supporters to show up in large numbers on a single day to celebrate at the bar. RSVPs are collected using social media promotions and email marketing. The offline party is paired with an online celebration where supporters thank the bar for going smokefree.

To support smokefree bars year-round, FTN drives supporters to a mobile-friendly bar/club finder to make it easy to frequent smokefree bars. Additionally, FTN’s new action-oriented microsite mobilizes Oklahomans to support smokefree bars by leaving a positive Yelp review and sharing a custom image on social media highlighting what they love about the venue (including its smokefree status).

Evaluation Methods and Results: Since its launch, FTN has grown to 4,843 combined supporters across Facebook and Twitter. Facebook posts supporting smokefree bars have reached 200,000+ people and generated 16,000+ actions such as likes, comments, and shares. The email list of dedicated supporters has grown to 357 with a high open rate of 22.6%. For ‘Club By Storm’ events, use of promoted posts reach 1,000 – 5,000 people per event, driving 35–70 additional patrons to the newly smokefree bar and generating 100-600 likes, comments, and shares in support.

Since launching in February 2016, the FTN action-oriented microsite has had 4,300 pageviews generating 150+ new supporters. There have been nearly 2,000 visitors to the smokefree bar/club finder.

Recently, several of FTN’s bar converts occurred after the bar/club owner spoke with one of FTN’s existing bar partners and learned that “going smokefree was the best decision the bar ever made.” Overall, FTN has converted 14 bars to smokefree in the last 12 months.

Conclusions: Digital strategies can be utilized to effectively drive frequent and coordinated online and offline action in support of a policy objective. A blend of digital and on-the-ground grassroots strategies can help normalize desired behaviors (such as smokefree bars) and ultimately drive voluntary policy change.

Implications for research and/or practice: By developing an integrated campaign with clear objectives and standardized measures of progress, public health practitioners can create a consumer-driven movement in support of and providing impetus for voluntary policies statewide.