Reducing at-Risk Teen Tobacco Use: Evidence of Success from the Syke Alternative Teen Campaign

Background:  While peers influence teen risk behaviors, few programs target the behavioral norms of risky subcultures. However, these subcultures must change to cause lasting behavior change.

Program background: 

The "Syke" Campaign was developed to reach Alternative (Alt) youth and has been implemented in Virginia since 2009 with funding from the Virginia Foundation for Health Youth. Syke uses a social marketing strategy that promotes the association of healthy behaviors with desired social identities through the use of carefully tailored messages, cultural experiences and influencers. By working with rock bands and other influencers, Syke aims to change the social norms around tobacco use within the Alt subculture and promote the idea that living tobacco free is an important component of the Alternative rock social identity. The Syke Campaign uses a variety of approaches to reach the target audience, including: 1) Experiential marketing, which includes in-person interactive experiences at organized rock concerts; 2) Brand ambassadors, which are socially influential youth within the subculture trained to conduct peer-to-peer anti-tobacco messaging; 3) Direct mail, which allows messaging to be delivered in an uncluttered and uncompetitive manner; 4) Paid digital and facilitated social media with the goal of building relationships with Alt teens; and 5) Traditional media which expands Syke’s message to a larger, state-wide audience while reinforcing the campaign’s cultural authority to those who experience it through one of the other strategies.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Data collection occurred at social venues patronized by the target audience in Richmond and Northern Virginia using a time-location sampling method (Raymond et al., 2007). Data was collected at five time points, in 2010 ( n=468), 2011 (n=621), 2012 (n=484), 2013 (n=646), and 2014 (n=608). Campaign awareness, campaign exposure, campaign receptivity as well as knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding tobacco use and tobacco use were assessed. By the fifth year of campaign implementation, 61% of all teens surveyed were aware of Syke, 60% had been to a Syke event and nearly 60% had been to the Syke website or Facebook page. From 2011 to 2014, there was a 35.9% reduction in overall past 30-day smoking rates among all teens. This decline was most prominent for Alternative teens, whose smoking prevalence have reduced 49.7% since 2011 compared to 26.7% reduction for non-Alternative teens.

Conclusions:  Not all youth are at the same risk for tobacco use, and tobacco use risk varies based on subculture identification. Specific targeted campaigns should be developed to address only high-risk cultures.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Interventions may prove more effective if they target at-risk youth in a culturally relevant way similar to how Syke targets teens that identify with the Alternative subculture.