Can we inspire teens to choose to do something with the same methodology that convinces them not to do something? For example, does the same decision-making process lead to teens buying Starbury One basketball shoes and to not buying the designer 0 Nike Zoom Kobe I sneakers? Is there a tasteless denominator in how teens choose to start smoking cigarettes and how they choose not to? Can we as marketers reach them at the pivotal decision-making moment to inspire desired behavior? Denver-based Cactus Marketing Communications thinks they have uncovered the easy truth about effectively altering teen behaviors by redefining empowerment as a marketing strategy.
I. Background
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Youth empowerment has been defined as an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young habitancy gain the ability, authority and agency to make decisions and implement convert in their own lives and the lives of other people, along with youth and adults.
Over the past decade, the word empowerment has come to be a buzzword in company and youth development, but the word has different meanings for different people. Agreeing to the Journal of Extension, "empowering teens" refers to a process through which adults begin to share responsibility and power with young people... It is the same idea as teaching young habitancy the rules of the game...Youth amelioration professionals are helping young habitancy organize non-academic competencies that will help them to partake in the game of life.
Traditionally, most campaigns that employ youth empowerment as a strategy assuredly encourage public movements through advocacy and activism. They encourage teens to speak out for causes and to rally other teens to join them in activism. This opinion has been particularly popular with youth amelioration campaigns such as 4-H and public condition campaigns such as tobacco control. Someone else popular example that demonstrates this opinion is Rock the Vote, which encourages young adults to serve as brand ambassadors and activists to encourage other young adults to vote.
Ii. Redefining Empowerment
In the fall of 2006, Denver-based Cactus Marketing Communications launched a campaign called Own Your C that is redefining empowerment as we know it. Rather than encouraging a public advocacy or activism in their communities, Own Your C aspires to encourage teens to make inescapable choices to implement convert in their own lives.
Commissioned by the Colorado State Tobacco study & arresting Partnership (Stepp), Own Your C is a tobacco arresting and cessation educational campaign targeting Colorado youth ages 12 to 18. Over the past year, Cactus and Stepp have worked hand in hand to furnish an integrated marketing campaign with the goal of reducing tobacco use among teens. The following is a overview on the insights gained into the complex world of teens and how those insights led Cactus to redefine empowerment as a marketing strategy with the Own Your C educational campaign.
A. Problem:
1. National tobacco trends:
- Agreeing to the Centers for Disease Control, a seek released in July 2006 claimed that a decade-long decline in youth smoking has halted among high school students.
- Ninety percent of adult smokers started smoking by the age of 18.
- Camel's No.9, a new contribution that The New York Times called "dressed to the nines," employs fashionable marketing techniques that motion to young women - from ad placements in fashion bibles like Vogue and Glamour and its name's haunting coincidence to the perfume, Chanel No. 21, and the song, "Love Potion No. 9". Flavored cigarettes, along with Kauai Kolada, Twista Lime and Mandarin Mint, also motion to teens.
2. Colorado is on center stage in the nation's battle against tobacco:
- Decreases in tobacco use rates among Colorado youth have come to be stagnant in recent years.
- The tobacco industry spent 7 million on marketing to youth in 2005, this is more than 200 percent of the funding the state has to combat their efforts.
- Tobacco clubs spend million marketing to Coloradoans every week.
- Colorado is often superior to test market new tobacco products.
B. Insight:
A range of study methods were employed in order to understand the complex and ever-changing world of teens, both tobacco and non-tobacco related. The goal was to find a message is universally relevant and leading among teens of all ages, ethnicities, genders, earnings levels and geographic locations.
1) Anti-tobacco campaign effectiveness
Through secondary research, Cactus and their study arm, market Perceptions, Inc., set out to seek whether or not other public study campaigns to-date have been thriving in reducing teen smoking levels. What they discovered is that there is a precedent for success with advertising in regards to reducing teen smoking levels.
One study published in 2005 measured students in 75 major media markets with varying levels of state-sponsored anti-tobacco Tv ads and found that students from markets with higher advertising levels were significantly less likely to have smoked in the past 30 days, more likely to perceive great harm from smoking and more likely to narrative they would not be smoking in five years' time. Additionally, a study measuring the effectiveness of the national "truth" campaign reported that 22 percent of the nation's allembracing youth smoking decline between 1999 and 2002 could directly be attributed to the campaign.
While the counter-industry theme (anti-Big Tobacco) has been proven thriving in the past and once tested assuredly in the late 1990's and early 2000's, more recent studies have shown that due to the proliferation of it as a strategy (nearly two-thirds of all state campaigns use counter-industry), it's yielding diminishing returns. A study published in 2006 by the American Journal of public condition reported that counter-industry ads did not significantly improve anti-industry motivation or lower smoking intent.
Studies have found that ads graphically portraying the effects of living or suffering from the afflictions of tobacco use (as opposed to dying from) rank high in getting youth to "stop and think" about tobacco use. Researchers caution against using messages that impose fear, which have some limitations, and trigger disgust, which some believe to be the particular most sufficient strategy in reducing teen smoking. Ads that employ fear tactics are more likely to be rebelled against, don't break through teens' invincibility barrier, and potentially only improve the idea of tobacco as the "forbidden fruit," whereas disgust motivates performance and corresponds with a lower intent to smoke.
2) Communicating with teens
When conducting a marketing campaign aimed at teens, it's not only leading to present the right messages to them, but to present in the right ways with them. Teens are leading the technology-driven, new media movement, spending more time with computers, the Internet, hand held devices, Mp3 players, cell phones, etc.
While talking on the phone is still the favorite communication formula of choice (when not hanging out in person), teens' communication patterns go hand in hand with their increased use of new media, with online forums (Instant Message, public networks, etc.) growing in popularity and changing the dynamics of relationships.
After the phone, teens narrative Instant Message (Im) as their second choice for communicating with friends. Im breaks down traditional communication barriers, lowering inhibitions and allowing them to say things they wouldn't say in person. The same is true of public networks, where a majority of teens build detailed and in-depth profiles for the entire world to see. Their profiles allow them to scheme an image of how they want to be seen, rather than their true identity. Their profiles also allow them to build a large network of friends, seeking out like-minded teens with similar interests, regardless of geographic locations. Teens more than any other generation, are widely linked to each other through this virtual community.
In increasing to identifying and prioritizing the permissible communication vehicles, Cactus and market Perceptions sought to good understand what brands are effectively communicating their messages to teens. through the mass clutter of brands today, they wanted to understand not necessarily which brands are "in" versus "out", as that is constantly evolving with this fickle audience, but what makes a brand relevant, albeit just briefly, in the minds of teens today.
Overwhelmingly, brand theorists point out that a brand is no longer a badge of ability or guarnatee of a safe choice as it is with older generations, however, it is a means to define themselves, to express who they feel they are or want to be outwardly to their peers, family, strangers, etc. It is an intelligent juxtaposition of self-expression while at the same time enhancing connectedness to other like-minded teens.
A recent global brand study showed that some U.S. Brands are losing favor with teens to more innovative, international brands. Experts argue that the brands losing on teen relevance are those that try to impose images on teens, rather than reflecting teens' perceptions of themselves. One particularly thriving campaign that resonated with youth is the Adidas "Impossible is Nothing" campaign, which spoke to teens optimism and connectedness.
Overall, teens are aware of marketing and "hip to the hype" and they need to feel in control and that they are discovering brands on their own. Teens need to feel as if they are a part of the brand story.
3) Teen decision-making
While secondary study in case,granted an comprehension of tobacco usage among teens, Cactus still needed to understand the decision-making dynamic surrounding teen tobacco use, especially when the decision is not to smoke. There was need to understand teenagers in terms of how they see tobacco within the context of their experience of being a teenager.
Therefore, Cactus and market Perceptions conducted traditional study with the explicit goal of enhancing their comprehension of teens through a novel advent that would present more about the decision-making dynamics from a teen's perspective. Recognizing that developments in computer technology have transformed the ways in which youth present and interact, market Perceptions built a virtual study space, http://www.YouthRuckus.com. This site became the center nearby which continuous online interaction afforded comprehension to search these truths.
The methodology for traditional study included Interpretive Phenomenological pathology and ethnographic components. After spending two months with teenagers, watching their behavior and interacting with them, Cactus learned that teen decision-making nearby tobacco requires a broader perspective beyond the topic of tobacco. The study uncovered the easy truth that tobacco use, or the avoidance of tobacco use, stems from a dynamic that lies at the root of many challenges that teens experience. They are development a transition from doing what others want them to do toward doing what they want to do - and they are studying to make choices along the way.
What Cactus revealed is that there are two ways in which teens come to be non-smokers.
One way looks very much like the decision to smoke. They don't smoke because man doesn't want them to smoke. For these teens, we must tell them not to smoke, comprehension that we are competing with others who are telling them to smoke.
The other way is a choice. These teens choose not to smoke. Recognizing that these teens are different from their reactionary peers is leading in two respects. First, the ability for teens to make decisions for themselves remains a considerable element of resistance to pro-tobacco advertising. These teens crave the control to make choices and be accountable for those choices. Second, development choices creates a inquire for information.
The implications of this research, therefore, are clear. There are two segments within the teen population. One segment requires a easy message - "Don't smoke!" The other segment requires a very different message - "Own your choices." While membership in these segments is not static, the movement is ordinarily from the first to the second. As teens learn and grow, they all begin to own their choices. Unfortunately, this means that the message "Don't smoke!" will have less impact as they do so, and will undermine their ability to see smoking as a bad choice as they make the transition.
4) Key findings
The study can be boiled down into the following key findings:
- Teens desire to be in control of their lives.
- Teens are pack-oriented and experience self-inflicted pressure to belong.
- Teens understand the choices they make today impact their future but, in the moment of decision, they often ignore this and act impulsively without mental about the consequences of their actions.
- Teens are concerned with their future, but their opinion of future often goes no supplementary than getting into or graduating from college.
- Teens are surrounded by negative messages and want to see things that reflect their optimism.
- Teens have high aspirations and respect brands that reflect this idealized version of themselves.
C. Solution:
Armed with meaningful research, Cactus and Stepp thought about that a thriving strategy for the commissioned public study campaign would recognize youth's desire to make choices as part of development the transition to adulthood and empower them to seek out data and take responsibility for the outcomes of those choices. Doing this, Cactus redefined empowerment as it had been defined by previous public marketing campaigns. Rather than encouraging advocacy and activism, this campaign encourages teens to make inescapable choices to implement convert in their own lives. This empowerment strategy executed via sufficient vehicles of communication yielded a excellent and impactful youth tobacco arresting and cessation campaign coined "Own Your C" (Own Your Choices).
"Choice" was superior as a message because it is universal to all youth, regardless of gender, geographic location, ethnicity, sexual orientation, earnings or age. choice is relevant to all teens since it connects to them on an emotional level. While youth are impulsive by nature, they demonstrate that they are receptive to messages that furnish perspective and empower them. Own Your C was advanced as the brand because it embodies the empowerment strategy and choice message. A tasteless vernacular among young adults, "own it" means to step up and take responsibility for your actions.
To breakthrough the advertising clutter in a teen's world, Cactus had to originate a bona fide youth relevant brand, not just Someone else public condition campaign. The Own Your C brand has to compete for attention not just against other public condition messages, but against other youth brands so campaign elements were designed to fit within the current fashions and trends of the youth culture. A fully integrated communications strategy was advanced with the ownyourC.com experiential Web site as the hub. Tactics consist of irreverent television spots, a street team, events, cessation tools, movable marketing, online advertising, and tapping public networks.
The site engages teens in study and conversation on the topic of choice-making as it relates to tobacco. Divided into three main sections of a virtual town called C-Ville, the site consist of a 'Park area to aid teens in the choices that impact their lives; a 'Downtown' area where teens can be immersed in the Own Your C brand through Tv spots, contests and downloads of art, music and ringtones; and a 'Drive-in' area where teens can learn and discuss the impacts of using tobacco.
Tv Spots. The television campaign is a series of three television spots that drive home the message that choices define you. "Cecil the Seal" is a tongue-in-cheek play on government-sponsored public assistance campaigns and introduces the campaign concept: C is for Choice. "Haunting C", based on a thriller suspense movie, reminds teens their choices may come back to haunt them. And "Omnipoteen" centers on a teen superhero who has the power to choose and the consequences linked with his choice. These Psas are designed to motion to teens and originate a buzz, while driving them to visit ownyourC.com.
C-Ride. A branded ice cream truck, the C-Ride serves as a "C" brand ambassador, construction buzz and generating excitement at youth-oriented events statewide. The truck features a back-lit chrome "C" hood ornament, airbag suspension and institution rims, institution lighting and sound, and a freezer for distributing ice cream and treats. Cactus commissioned an artist from the U.K. popular for his offbeat character illustrations to organize the truck's exterior. Equipped with a street team, the C-Ride extends the brand to urban, rural and mountain communities and serves as a distribution point for tobacco cessation materials.
Promotional Items. Cactus commissioned artists from nearby the world to express what "owning your C" means to them. Choice-inspired designs from artists in Thailand, the U.K. And the U.S. Have been parlayed into t-shirts, winter hats, stickers and magnets, which are distributed by the C-Ride street team.
Quit Kits. Cactus created discreet quit kits for teens to quit smoking or chew tobacco. The kits are encased in anonymous encyclopedia covers with hollowed interior space to store a quit journal, gum, stress balls and alternative-to-tobacco mint snuff pouches.
D. Preliminary results
Since Own Your C launched in the fall of 2006, it has been acclaimed as a relevant youth brand and has created ample buzz among the advertising, organize and interactive communities. OwnyourC.com has been heralded as one of the world's top Web sites targeting youth and has competed for industry awards in the company of Nickelodeon, intelligent George, Gillette, Adidas, Altoids and Nike, to name a few. The site has been honored with recent accolades including:
2007 The Webby Awards Winner in Youth category
2007 The One Show Merit Award in Non-profit category
2007 South by Southwest Web Awards "Best in Show"
2007 South by Southwest Web Awards "Gold" in the Business: Green/Non-Profit category
2006 Favourite Web Site Awards "Site of the Year" third place
September 2006 "Site of the Month"
January 2007 CommArts "Site of the Week"
According to ad industry blogs:
"Denver agencies Cactus and AgencyNet have created a visually stunning, bang on strategy online campaign for the state of Colorado... But marketing the value of choices is a strange thing I hear you say? Well, it's a not so thinly guised push at educating teens about the condition effects of tobacco. Its wholly non-preachy form of communication is refreshing and the perfect tone for speaking to teens." - Tait Ischia, marketing student, Australia
"OwnYourC takes a form conducive to internet-saavy teen visitors-an interactive world, full of animation, green-screen video, 3D characters, stop motion animation, sounds, etc. The campaign conveys this message artfully throughout the site, and the site creators are starting to see that kids are 'becoming the voice to expand the campaign.'" - Josh Spear, trendspotter, writer, designer, Denver.
What's more important, the campaign has been well-received by Colorado teens. The Own Your C street team has visited 115 schools in 40 counties since December 2006. The Web site has had over 310,000 unique visitors since the campaign launched last fall and it has nearly 7,000 C-Ville "citizens," or registered site members, that receive updates on events, contest data and monthly newsletter.
It seems that Colorado youth have responded assuredly to the campaign message. They appreciate that Own Your C empowers them to make smart choices and does it without preaching or talking down to them. They also seem to like that this campaign doesn't solely focus on tobacco use, but rather allembracing inescapable decision-making for the game of life. Agreeing to Colorado teens:
"I think that this a assuredly cool, fresh way to get kids to relax how their decisions succeed their future."
"Thank you for not lecturing me on data that I know about tobacco already."
"I'm amazed that man came out to our school to talk about inescapable choices."
"I've made a lot of bad choices without mental of the repercussions, and the outcome. I think that I will start development good choices from here on out!"
The C-ride program has also been lauded by Colorado schools. The branded ice cream truck and the C-ride street team have visited 120 counties in 40 counties, traveling over 8,700 miles since December 2006. On the road, the street team has distributed thousands of t-shirts, hats, stickers and magnets to teens over the state. Additionally tobacco quit kits and posters were distributed to local community condition agencies and about 1,000 urban and rural middle and high schools in Colorado. Feedback from students, teachers and other anti-tobacco organizations has been positive.
What's next for Own Your C? The campaign has national inherent for expansion. Five state condition agencies from over the nation have expressed interest in bringing the youth empowerment campaign to their states. The State of Colorado is currently taking requests from other curious states.
Redefining Empowerment-A Case Study About Effectively Marketing To Teens Without Turning Them Off
