E-poster Presentation 2014 World Cancer Congress

Reach and reaction – promoting World No Tobacco Day to the masses through Facebook (#1058)

Sarah J Beasley 1 , Cassandra Clayforth 1
  1. Cancer Council WA, Shenton Park, WA, Australia

Background and Context:

The Make Smoking History (MSH) Facebook page, created in September 2012, was designed to engage people affected by, or interested in tobacco cessation between the ages of 18-54. For World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) 2014, MSH and advertising agency Gatecrasher created a post for Facebook which was then promoted in consumers’ newsfeeds throughout WA.

Aim:

To promote the WNTD theme for 2014 of raising tobacco tax, as set by the World Health Organisation.

Strategy/Tactics:

To create an engaging image and encourage consumers to share the post in the lead up to WNTD. The tobacco tax theme was mentioned in the promoted post (with an emphasis on saving money) along with an image of a piggybank and the tagline ‘Save money and your life’.

Programme/Policy Process:

The post was uploaded to Facebook and promoted from 26th– 30th May 2014. Consumer metrics were provided by Facebook’s inbuilt analytics tool ‘Facebook Insights’ and Gatecrasher. The media spend was $3,312.50.

Outcomes/What was learned:

The promoted post reached over 430,000 people (393,600 due to paid reach) and gained a total of 4,314 likes, 613 comments and 1,528 shares. The number of comments were split evenly between males and females. A further 2,506 likes, comments and shares were achieved through people sharing the post with their friends.

Males made more comments about NRT, other drugs, the government and positive remarks about the campaign than females. Females made more comments on prohibition, loved ones and the health benefits of quitting than males. In addition there were 72 comments hidden or deleted due to expletives (78% male, 22% female).

The ‘tagging’ function of Facebook became an extremely useful targeting tool. 415 people were tagged by their friends and family in the post comments, creating a very direct path to the intended audience.