Counter Marketing:
What Is Available
Adam Arthur
Media Coordinator
West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention
WV DTP Counter Marketing
Media and marketing are often the most effective
tools in changing awareness, attitudes and
behavior, and have proven to be an essential
component of comprehensive anti-tobacco efforts
in West Virginia and other states. As a part of its
assertive approach to tobacco-use prevention,
WV DTP has supported an aggressive statewide
media anti-tobacco campaign (also called counter
marketing).
Effective Counter-Marketing Principles
The experiences of other states have demonstrated
that counter-marketing campaigns have the potential to
dramatically bolster smoking prevention and cessation
programs, build public support for tobacco control
activities, and set a supportive climate for school and
community efforts. The campaigns have in common
several core components that can increase the
likelihood of success.
Campaigns Should:
• Be comprehensive, based on market research, and developed
by a professional media consultant or team
• Ensure all media strategies are consistent with a common
message, theme and recognizable brand
• Develop a movement among youth, building momentum for
remaining tobacco-free and mobilizing their efforts to reach
out to their peers by empowering youth leaders to work for the
cause of educating youth about tobacco. This campaign should
be intertwined with the counter-marketing efforts (RAZE)
• Use non-authoritarian appeals that avoid direct commands
not to smoke
Campaigns Should:
• Involve focus groups, test groups, and target market studies
in the development of any media campaign
• Combine messages on prevention, cessation, and protection
from secondhand smoke; target both young people and adults
Relating
PARTICULARLY
• Include
a combination
of grassroots promotions,To
local media
advocacy, event sponsorship and other community activities to
Clean
Indoor
Air
Campaigns…
create a recognizable presence at all levels
• Partner with organizations that have an interest in reducing
tobacco consumption and who will address youth populations
• Work with statewide youth organizations to eliminate
tobacco sponsorship of events
The Media Campaign
Must Be Comprehensive
Multiple audiences, messages, vehicles,
paid and earned media, etc.
Effective Ads Use
Appropriate Tone
Speak to smokers and
Show
balance
in
the
Show
support
and
Speak
from
a
business
owners
degree
of
difficulty
can
understanding
smoker’s
experience
respectfully,
don’t judge
everyone understand it?
or criticize them
Look At This Ad…
Look At This Ad…
Look At This Ad…
Strong And Consistent
Media Presence Is Required
Need a high level of commitment to
impact the audience’s awareness, knowledge,
attitudes, intentions and behaviors
• High reach (% of audience reached)
• High frequency (% of times reached)
• Long duration (period of time messages
placed)
• Appropriate placement for messages
Additional Lessons About Ad Presence
Some of the most effective ads may
also be offensive to some viewers
• Can sometimes be managed by careful
placement of ads
Remember…
DE-NORMALIZATION IS
Some emotionally intense ads
THE
OVERALL
GOAL
may warrant shorter media runs
Themes and Formats
With Low Potential
• Choice Ads
• Choice ads consistently rated lower than ads
about health effects and industry deception
• TELLING someone to make a choice without
providing compelling rationale will cause SOME
to smoke, and SOME not to smoke
• Humor Ads
• Choice ads consistently rated lower than ads
about health effects and industry deception
Themes and Formats
With Low Potential
• Humor Ads
• Attention getting, but they don’t change
attitudes or behaviors
• Death/disease/personal loss are VERY serious
topics…BE CAREFUL
• The only exception may be sarcastic or cynical
humor, (but you will STILL upset at least one
person out there)
Look At This Ad…
Look At This Ad…
Look At This Ad…
Look At This Ad…
Look At This Ad…
Media Advocacy
Compared
Defined
as with
the strategic
public use of
mass media
relations,
media
and community
advocacy is
advocacy
more
focused
to advance
on a particular
environmental
policy
goal, resulting
changeinorsocial
a
public policy
change.
It’s also
initiative.
more
decentralized, community
based, and community owned
Media Advocacy
Using the Media, Not
Depending On It
• the media is a tool, not a
goal, and that media
coverage is a means to an
end, not an end in itself.
• through the media,
advocates gain access and
a voice in the social
decision-making process
Media Advocacy
Using the Media, Not
Depending On It
• the media alone will not
accomplish the goal of
change
• media advocacy efforts
should be used in
combination with other
communications and policy
initiatives
Media Advocacy
A Crucial Component of a
Media Campaign
• empowers the
community and targets
policy makers
• it’s a way of getting your
message heard and
inspiring others to join in
your cause
Media Advocacy
A Crucial Component of a
Media
It Campaign
begins with the
• premise
it can change
thatattitudes
those
and
create
a
flood
of
closest to a problem are
support
the best positioned to fix
it and takes advantage of
the fact that most media
are local.
The successful use of media
advocacy requires flexibility
and being in tune with
community issues, needs, and
resources so that opportunities
are embraced when they arise.
It is a learning process, and
skills are developed through
practice. It requires long-term
thinking and not being
discouraged by short-term
setbacks.
Media Advocacy
Media advocacy can refer to a wide range of
activities that all of you can initiate yourselves,
which may include:
It focuses on policy change or environmental
• Initiating calls, faxes, and emails to reporters
change.
However,
it
doesn’t
have
to
be
(“pitching” stories or angles)
confrontational and it isn’t limited to earned media.
• Responding to calls and e-mails from your local
reporters
• Staging strategic media events
• Developing long-term relationships with “media
gatekeepers”
Media Advocacy
Media advocacy can refer to a wide range of
activities that all of you can initiate yourselves,
which may include:
• Alerting the media about important political or
other policy-related developments and framing these
developments for the media
• Writing opinion / editorial (op-ed) columns,
letters/emails to the editors of local newspapers
/radio hosts
• Conducting creative research to educate your local
media and to generate attention
Media Advocacy
Unlike other counter-marketing
components, the role of the DTP is to
support the policy efforts of local
coalitions
By providing you with information and tools
that support the overall effort…
Help Coordinate Special Events
Informing you of HOT information
Providing Specialized Materials
Customizing Ads For Special Needs
Providing Approved, Editable
Advertising Templates
Concluding Thoughts
• De-normalization of tobacco is the goal
• The media campaign must be comprehensive
• To be affective you must maintain the
appropriate tone
• A strong and consistent media presence is
required
• Use media advocacy to your advantage but
don’t depend on it solely
• Utilize the tools made available to you