146 CHAPTER 4 TARGET GROUPSCASE 4:
The ‘Ex-smokers are Unstoppable’ campaign across
27 European Union countries
Background
Every year, 695 000 Europeans die because of smoking.
Smoking continues to be the largest single cause of pre-
ventable death and disease in the European Union (EU).
Research shows that, on average, 21% of European smokers
have tried to quit at least once in the past year. However,
research also indicates that they are not always successful.
Anti-tobacco campaigns are not new but until recently
they focused only on how bad smoking is and how it can
negatively impact on health and lifestyles. The European
Commission has been funding campaigns against tobacco
since 2002. The first campaign, ‘Feel free to say no’, ran
from 2002 to 2004. The second, ‘Help: for a life without
tobacco’, ran from 2005 to 2010 and focused on smoking
prevention, smoking cessation and passive smoking,
targeting, in particular, young Europeans between 15 and
25 years old.
The latest is the ‘Ex-smokers are Unstoppable’ campaign.
It was launched on 16 June 2011 and will run until the end
of 2013 in all EU countries. It shifts the focus from the
dangers of smoking to the benefits of giving up.
For the first time, the message is a positive one in that it
aims to support a long-term motivation to stay away from
tobacco. The focus is on the positive aspects of the new life
which opens up to ex-smokers. The campaign celebrates
ex-smokers and portrays them as inspiring role models
to encourage other smokers to quit. The large number of
smokers who want to quit no longer need convincing about
the need to stop. The challenge is to find the right motivation
to get them to act on their desire to give up smoking.
In addition to the motivational message, free practical
help and guidelines on how to stop are provided through
iCoach. Created with input from leading scientists, psy-
chologists and communications experts, the iCoach online
tool guides smokers through a five-stage process that
offers motivation, advice and tips and sends daily help by
e-mail so that they stay on course.Objectives
The overall objective of the campaign is to help smokers
get rid of their addiction and lead happier and healthier
lives. The campaign is built around four elements:- Appeal. It must be appealing and perceived by the
audience to be different to other campaigns. - Recommendation. As word of mouth and advice from a
friend can be very persuasive, it is essential that the
audience pick up the message and talk about it (con-
versations and recommendations). - Reflection. The campaign needs to make people think
about their own behaviour (consider quitting); it must
have a direct effect on their attitudes. - Quitting. The ultimate goal is that people quit smoking
with the help of iCoach. The European Commission set
a target of helping 111 851 smokers to quit smoking (i.e.
iCoach registrations).
Communications strategy
The campaign is aimed at smokers, and the target group is
25–34 year olds. Research shows that younger people are more
likely to smoke and tend to be less susceptible to scare
tactics; many of the negative effects of smoking, like chronic
diseases or cancer, do not present themselves in the young,
who often believe these problems do not concern them.
The new and positive campaign message has been
communicated in print, audio-visual media (TV and seed-
ing) and online (display ads, banners, search engine, social
media), as well as at national and international events. A
variety of motivational messages have enabled the use of
different triggers in different contexts. All channels aim
to generate traffic to the official website of the campaign,
where visitors are immediately directed to the iCoach
programme to turn intention into behaviour.
As the campaign has progressed, interesting and inspiring
material has come to light: stories from real ex-smokers, with
their dreams and ambitions and what they have achieved
since giving up. Facebook pages provide a virtual place to
share these stories and comment on them.
In the first phase ( June 2011), the campaign was launched
with print and bannering as these channels proved the
most manageable budget-wise and provided full European
coverage.
Metro (or newspapers with a similar profile) became the
print partner, as this free newspaper is handed out on aM04_PELS3221_05_SE_C04.indd 146M04_PELS3221_05_SE_C04.indd 146 6/5/13 3:00 PM6/5/13 3:00 PM