New Media Awards 2007 Atos Origin

Department of Health - SMOKEFREE

http://www.gosmokefree.co.uk/

Nominated in Advocacy award category.

The SMOKEFREE campaign website aims to reduce the UK’s 26% smoking population by 5% over 5 years. Specifically targeting 22-45 year old smokers, it highlights the controlling nature of smoking, and supports nationwide TV and outdoor advertisements.

It aims to change public perception of smoking whilst trying not to completely alienate smokers and above support those kicking the habit. It also targets other tobacco stakeholders including health professionals, local Stop Smoking Services, Primary Care Trusts, and Strategic Health Authorities.

The striking new media campaign, launched by the Department of Health, generates a user experience that educates and promotes the benefits of going smokefree.

1 nomination from readers

  • The website engages users by motivating and inspiring their efforts to go smokefree. A wealth of information is available to download such as campaign plans, artwork, PR toolkits, newsletters, and resources for organisations. The multimedia TV advertisements can be viewed online adding a greater impact to the user experience.

    The site encourages users to consider how much better they will feel and how much more extra money they will have if they go smokefree. It includes a cost of smoking (dependency) calculator and a wide range of interactive tools to help people make the decision to give up including a 4 step guide to quitting (‘Get Ready’, ‘Make A Plan’, ‘Go Smokefree’, ‘Keep Going’) and an interactive body highlighting the effects of smoking.

    The site supports the overall go smokefree campaign brand by interacting with and informing the target audience. Research by the Department of Health shows the average smoker needs over 5,000 cigarettes a year to feed their habit. With this in mind, the content of the site avoids preaching to the user and uses real life examples to create a welcoming and friendly environment. It is designed to Double AA accessibility standards ensuring traditional hard to reach users have access to this resource.

    Launched on 8th January 2007, it has attracted up to 660,000 unique visitors viewing 3.5 million pages. In just its first month of launch the site had seen over 72,000 unique visitors and increased legacy site visitors by 309%.

    Over 50,000 who visited the site have used the dependency calculator to highlight the cost of their habit with a conversion rate of 89%. The site has helped engage users as over 107,000 have followed the steps to ‘how do I go smokefree’ and over 50,000 have searched for their local service to help them quit.

    Nominated by Stel Grekos, 31 May 2007