Each year, 7,500 Oklahomans die from a smoking-related illness, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, smoking costs Oklahoma $1.62 billion in related health care costs each year.
The Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline (OTH) was created from funds allocated to Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) through the Master Settlement Agreement. The Helpline has had more than half a million registrations since 2003. OTH uses traditional and non-traditional media to educate and encourage tobacco users to make a quit attempt.
One of TSET’s goals is to improve health outcomes, well-being and economic opportunity for Oklahomans by preventing and reducing tobacco use and obesity; in addition, one of TSET’s goal for tobacco outcomes is to reduce the smoking prevalence among Oklahoma adults from 19.1% to 13.4% by FY26. With this in mind, the Helpline developed a campaign - “Hard To Remember” - to empathize with people who know they should quit using tobacco but struggle to remember the reasons why. The campaign directs individuals to the Helpline for support. This campaign falls under a flagship initiative – Reasons To Quit – which has a more empathetic/emotional messaging focusing on the tobacco users reason to quit tobacco. OTH has three reasons we touch on health, family and money/finances.
For the Hard To Remember campaign, OTH ultimately wanted to measure how successful they were in directing Oklahomans to the Helpline for support, tracking registrations to the Helpline. Our objective across the campaign and tactics, which is currently being evaluated by the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health, was to: “Increase the average number of Helpline registrants by 20% during the Hard To Remember campaign flights.”
This overall objective ladders up to TSET’s tobacco outcome goal of reducing smoking prevalence in Oklahoma.
OTH developed the “Hard To Remember” campaign to empathize with people who know they should quit using tobacco but struggle to remember the reasons why. The messages speak to the inner conflict of knowing the healthy choice but battling against the addictiveness of nicotine. The creative follows three individuals stuck in this crossroad, choosing to make the next step to quit.
In the journey of quitting tobacco, some may find it challenging to remember the reasons behind their decision, especially during moments when triggers produce intense cravings. This new campaign highlights situations such as traffic stress and being around other tobacco users that may be tempting and directs individuals to the Helpline for support. The “Hard To Remember” campaign ran for two months during the fiscal year (February and March.)
The primary audience of the campaign is Oklahomans between the ages of 25-64 years old who use tobacco. Tobacco use is highest among those with less education and lower incomes. Secondary audiences include health care providers, employers wanting to create a healthier workplace, those trying to help loved ones quit tobacco and tobacco users trying to stay tobacco free. In addition to broad messaging for the entire target audience, specific messaging is also created for priority populations, including SoonerCare (Oklahoma Medicaid), Native Americans, pregnant women, males and smokeless tobacco users.
OTH successfully created a campaign utilizing the following paid tactics that were determined to carry the Hard To Remember campaign message, in addition to organic social, earned media, website and other owned media, PR, and partnership efforts:
TV/Cable/Radio
TrueView for Action
Website Click Ads
Social Video
The main objective to: “Increase the average number of Helpline registrants by 20% during the Hard To Remember campaign flights” is currently being evaluated by the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health. However, preliminary results show we exceeded this goal by 26.4%. (The average number of registrations during the Hard To Remember campaign was 651 - compared to 515 in the months when the campaign was not live.)
When OTH focuses on a more empathetic/emotional messaging focusing on the tobacco users reason to quit tobacco message, the team has found success in adding registrants to the Helpline. This work increases the number of people working to quit tobacco, making our state healthier and hitting our overall objective of reducing smoking prevalence in Oklahoma.
