The National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit and “The Help You Deserve” Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements with Results

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements (PSA) At the end of this presentation you will be able to: – Understand the processes and challenges in developing and implementing effective PSAs – Identify ways to maximize PSA exposure with a target audience

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Presentation Outline – Opportunities for and challenges to using PSAs effectively – Creative development – Packaging and distribution process to make an impact – Evaluating effectiveness

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements What is a Public Service Announcement? – A TV or radio commercial, usually 10 – 60 seconds long, that is broadcast at no cost to the sponsor.* – A relatively small, up-front investment that can result in a huge payoff in terms of advertising value and program exposure * The Practice of Public Relations, 1995

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Opportunities – Can be an effective method for reaching target audiences – Makes those who air/print your PSA appear to be good corporate citizens

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Challenges – Stations get dozens of PSAs a month – yours needs to stand out to get on the air – Stations are no longer required to air PSAs – Difficult to target specific audiences since air time is not under your control

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements What is the National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit? – The National Partnership is a coalition of 50 public health organizations dedicated to helping pregnant smokers quit

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements The Goals of the National Partnership are to: – Reduce the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy from percent to no more than 1 percent as set in Healthy People 2010 – Ensure that all pregnant women will be screened for tobacco use, and all pregnant and post-partum smokers receive best practice cessation counseling as a part of their usual care by 2005

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Why a PSA? – The media habits of our target audience indicate that television is the most consistently used resource

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements What kind of PSA? – We knew that real stories of women who quit are a powerful motivator for pregnant smokers – We got lucky – the American Legacy Foundation ® (a partner) had footage of just such women – But the footage couldn’t be used “as is”

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements We knew from focus group testing that support and empathy are more effective at helping pregnant smokers quit than blame We also knew that most pregnant smokers do not know that effective help is available

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements We needed to be specific and give solutions – The “Help You Deserve” PSA used real stories that did not minimize the challenges but also empowered solutions such as the Great Start Quitline

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements The American Legacy Foundation and the American Cancer society partnered to establish the Great Start Quitline It is the only nationwide, toll-free quitline with pregnancy-specific counseling services The American Legacy Foundation funds Great Start and the American Cancer Society maintains the quitline. It is truly an example of leveraging relationships and expertise

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Be flexible – Provide your PSA in several different lengths to allow programmers to choose whichever one best fits their availability – “Help You Deserve” was produced in :10, :15, :20, and :30 second spots – 44 percent of stations used the :10 spot and 33 percent used the :30 spot – Most stations used the non-traditional length – Be able to produce in any electronic format such as Beta and VHS

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Packaging can get a PSA director to take a look – “Help You Deserve” cover letters used state- specific statistics to personalize the issue – Storyboards can give a glimpse at the issue without having to open the tape – The counseling-based approach advocated in the PSA can double, and in some cases triple quit rates

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Distribution strategies – Know your strengths. If you don’t have the expertise to disseminate your PSA effectively, work with those who do – For “Help You Deserve,” we spent $35,000 on distribution and received more than $2.9 million in advertising value – Know where your audience lives. We targeted 20 states with the highest rates of smoking and concentrated our efforts in those areas

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Work many channels with partners and stakeholders to maximize outreach – National Association of Broadcasters placed PSA on their December 2002 PSA feed to all member stations – AARP donated paid advertising spots to air the PSA on ABC’s “World News Tonight” 13 times in October 2002 – Use local advocates where possible

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Evaluation – Use of a vendor to distribute PSA will allow more accurate tracking – Vendors can also predict the comparative advertising value with greater accuracy

Developing and Implementing a Public Service Announcement Other methods can help verify results – Tag your PSA with a tracking number – Send business reply cards with PSA – Using these methods we were able to track airings of the “Help You Deserve” PSA. It aired approximately 32,000 times in 52 media markets over the course of 6 months

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Evaluation – For an investment of $160,000, we received more than $3.3 million dollars of advertising value – More than 11,000 pregnant smokers called the Quitline, with the largest spikes coinciding with the most concentrated airings of the PSA

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Creative Development – Shape your messages to suit your target audience – Give solutions – Produce the final product in different spot lengths – :10, :15, :20, and :30 seconds are the most common – In our experience, :10 and :30 spots are the most popular

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Packaging – Smart packaging can mean the difference between a successful PSA and one that sits unopened

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Distribution – Work with vendors who know how to distribute PSAs and how to track the equivalent paid advertising value – Work with partners to distribute through alternative channels

Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements Evaluation – Tag your PSA to track results – Develop business reply cards so that stations can tell you when they are using your PSA – You should be able to tell where, with what frequency, and the value of air time for your PSA

The National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit and “The Help You Deserve” Developing and Implementing Public Service Announcements with Results