Objectives

• Utilize VH1 programming and talent to expose Big Tobacco's lies, forcing them to wear their scarlet letter in places where young people will see them.

• §Amplify and call attention to the statements they have to make

• §Spark outrage against Big Tobacco for their actions

Tapping into one of VH1's highly-rated franchises, Hip Hop Squares (HHS) and partnering with social talent recognizable to our fans, we created a 360 convergent program that bridged the gap between linear and social marketing to spread truth's important message wherever our young fans consumed their media.

A co-branded vignette that ran across all platforms and multiple handles, leveraged the humor of the show to help shed light on Big Tobacco's lies. Featuring show host Deray Davis backstage, he's approached by social influencers, Simone and Klarity, who confront him about why he hasn't had them on the show. Deray comes up with lie after hilarious lie as to why they can't be on the show, until breaking the fourth wall to reveal the biggest lies of all from Big Tobacco.

Strategy and Execution

The program was rooted in a :45 on-air vignette which ran 23x times as lead up to a HHS episode premiere. The creative features Deray Davis backstage at HHS where he's approached by his friends/social talent Simone + Klarity who are dying to be contestants on the show. They confront Deray about why he still hasn't had them on the show. Deray then comes up with lie after hilarious lie as to why they can't be on the show, until turning straight to camera to reveal the biggest lies of all – from Big Tobacco.

To further extend truth's presence on VH1 across all screens, we amplified this content across VH1's digital and social platforms to spread the message of Big Tobacco's lies to our social audience, where Big Tobacco's statements may be flying under the radar.

We created an editorial blog post (with fixed media + co-brands) which highlighted GIFs pulled from the vignette and a :60 digital extended video which featured even more of Deray's comedic lies. The digital extended video included pre-roll + slate and was also housed with a digital playlist on VH1.com with road blocked media.

Robust social promotion was provided from VH1's social platforms (13x total social posts shared to VH1's over 8.7M combined followers across FB, IG, Twitter and YouTube) including support from Simone + Klarity's massive social footprint (over 2MM followers combined). We even received MORE social love as Deray re-tweeted 2x of VH1's posts to his over 850k Twitter followers and Klarity who re-posted the truth video to his IG page.

Results

• oThe campaign surpassed the impressions guarantee, over-delivering by +35% and reaching over 12.1M impressions across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
• oFans were surprised and reacted positively to the content created for social.
• §The :60 video delivered over 3.8M views and retained audiences with a 31% video view rate, 3x above benchmark
• oThe program also drove strong engagement from fans who shared strong reactions to the truth campaign and Big Tobacco's lies with over 110k engagements and a 0.9% engagement rate, 3x above benchmark. Fan comments:
• §"I like how they draw you in then drop facts"
• §"Now I gotta stop smoking cause that was good"
• §"Tobacco causes cancer and it is legal smh"

• oOverall, we successfully delivered on truth's objective of spreading the truth about Big Tobacco's lies to a younger demographic in the social space by creating content that felt like a natural extension to HHS and featured recognizable talent to the VH1 audience.

Media