Transcript Slide 1

Implementing a Counter-Marketing
Campaign
Ann C. Forsythe, Ph.D.
Sr. Health Communication Specialist
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Office on Smoking and Health
Health Communications Branch
National Conference on Tobacco or Health
October 2007
The findings and conclusions in this presentation are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Key Topics
 Setting up your Counter-Marketing Team
 Selecting Contractors
 Developing an annual marketing plan
 Reviewing marketing materials
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 Monitoring the Counter-Marketing budget
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Setting up your counter-marketing team
– Health department staff
• Marketing director
• Advertising manager
• Press officer
• Community relations manager
• Evaluation specialist
• Financial manager
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Communication agencies functions
– Develop creative approaches to achieve objectives
– Recommend the types of media vehicles for your
messages and target audiences
– Identify requirements of media placements to
reach your audience
– Arrange opportunities for news coverage of your
messages, your program or both
– Organize community-based activities to promote
your message
– Develop relationships with community stakeholders
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Evaluation companies and consultants
– Identify key measures on the basis of your
communication objectives
– Determining the baseline, process, and outcome
information needed to measure the impact of your
activities
– Preparing an evaluation plan and budget for the
counter-marketing effort
– Conducting appropriate research before, during,
and after your program is launched
– Developing reports on the research that clearly
present the data, findings, and conclusions
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Stakeholders, Gatekeepers, and Local Programs
– Carrying and publicizing he program messages to
constituents
– Developing programs that tie directly into your
messages
– Co-sponsoring community programs
– Speaking on behalf of the program
– Supporting local legislation and policies that
contribute to reducing tobacco use
– Advocating for and protecting the program and its
goals
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Selecting Contractors
– Before the bidding process
• Learn what your budget can buy in your state
• Look at what has been done by other programs
in your state
• Explore approaches used in other states
• Learn the ins and outs of your state’s
contracting rules
• Decide on the configuration of firms for your
program – one company for a range of
communication activities?
• Avoid firms that work with tobacco companies
• Recruit a diverse review committee
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 During the bidding process
– How strategic and thoughtful are the decisions the
firm makes and the work it produces?
– How creative is the firm?
– Does the firm describe how it would approach the
subject of tobacco, and, if so, do you like what you
hear?
– Does the firm have experience working with
community groups?
– Does the firm have experience with your target
audiences?
– Does the firm have experience with tobacco
control, social marketing, or other health-related
work?
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 During the bidding process
– Do the firm’s references and samples give you
insights into the quality of the work and skills of
the staff assigned to your account?
– Does the firm have a track record of developing
campaigns that have generated measurable results?
– Has the firm bought media in every market in your
state? Does it have experience in evaluating and
buying a wide variety of media?
– Is the team proposed by the firm a mix of senior,
mid-level, and junior staff?
– What is the experience of the primary staff to be
assigned to your account?
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Once you’ve selected a firm
– Develop team relationships
– Teach them about resources available and effective
tobacco counter-marketing messages
– Share resources and materials you have with the
firm
– Resources from other states and CDC OSH MCRC
– Offer constructive feedback to agency staff
– Reinforce goals, objectives continuously
– Be flexible when needed, staff turn-over, new hires
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Developing an annual marketing plan
– Reviewing marketing materials
– Keeping materials on strategy
– Ensuring accurate technical content
• Require the firm to provide documentation for all statements,
facts, and figures that appear in the materials and ads
• Maintain an easily accessible file of the ad scripts and other ad
materials and files
• Identify technical experts within your department who can sign
off on the technical content in ads and other communication
materials
• Develop a review and approval process that includes all of the
key decision makers but doesn’t delay ad production
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Monitoring the Counter-Marketing Budget
– Review Best Practices
– Look at budgets for other statewide efforts, such as lottery
campaigns, travel and tourism, or promotion of agricultural
products
– Find out what other states have spent on tobacco countermarketing programs and determine whether any of the states
have per capita and total budgets similar to yours; learn how
funds were allocated
– Consider hiring a compensation consultant to help you
negotiate your agencies’ budgets
– Determine the amounts you can afford to spend and the best
approach for allocating funds in your particular budget
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing Campaign
 Variables that affect a communication budget
– Cost of buying media in your state
– Amount and level of ad production (e.g., number of
ads produced or reapplied and complexity of ad
produced)
– Number and choice of media outlets
– Intensity and duration of campaign
– Use of existing versus original advertisements
– Single focus versus multiple focuses (e.g., number
of overall goals and number of target audiences)
– Number of events and activities (e.g., PR,
grassroots, and media advocacy)
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 Considerations
– General rules of thumb for managing a budget
• Remember that we’re spending tax-payers’ money
• Be sure that your spending decisions are well informed
and that every initiative is focused on the program’s goals
and objectives
• Obtain estimates, so you know how much a project will
cost before you begin
• Approve all costs before any work begins and money is
spent
• Review monthly expenditures carefully
• Hold monthly budget calls/meetings
• Include evaluation cost in the overall campaign budget,
unless they are included in another part of the tobacco
control budget
• Buy the rights to creative materials
• Ask questions!
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Implementing a Counter-Marketing
Campaign
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Office on Smoking and Health
[email protected]
www.cdc.gov/tobacco
The findings and conclusions in this presentation are those of the author and do not necessarily
represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
TM
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