Data-informed campaign development and implementation: How FDA and Scholastic Inc. educated millions of teens on the dangers of e-cigarette use

Background:

The 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) found the number of high school students using e-cigarettes increased 78 percent from the previous year. Additionally, the 2018 Monitoring the Future Study found that a significant portion of youth do not see great risk of harm in regularly vaping nicotine. To address this public health epidemic, FDA launched the “The Real Cost” E-Cigarette Prevention Campaign to educate the nearly 10.7 million youth aged 12-17 who have ever used e-cigarettes or are open to trying them about the potential risks of e-cigarette use. Evidence-based campaign messages focus on educating youth that using e-cigarettes, just like cigarettes, puts them at risk for addiction and other health consequences. To expand the reach of its prevention campaign beyond paid advertising, FDA collaborated with Scholastic, Inc., to disseminate e-cigarette prevention materials to high school educators.

Program background:

FDA conducted extensive research to develop outreach strategies and messaging to reach teens with e-cigarette prevention messages—including literature reviews, target audience analyses, ad copy testing, and consultation with tobacco control experts. In addition to hard-hitting ads that run on age-verified digital platforms that reach teens, FDA joined forces with Scholastic to distribute educational materials and resources to educators around the country. FDA and Scholastic codeveloped a website and an interactive classroom lesson plan. FDA also created two infographics – one countering common myths about e-cigarette use and one sharing 2018 NYTS data. These materials were hosted on the Scholastic website and promoted to educators via Scholastic’s digital outreach platforms. Scholastic conducted A/B testing for e-mail marketing to refine and improve outreach to educators over time. In addition, Scholastic helped distribute “The Real Cost” campaign posters to 23,000 high schools across the U.S. These posters featured messages designed to engage youth where they are often faced with the decision to use e-cigarettes—in high school bathrooms.

Evaluation Methods and Results:

FDA and Scholastic tracked several performance metrics and administered a survey to evaluate the campaign materials and outreach strategies. The materials were e-mailed to more than 750,000 high school teachers. With 86 percent of educators rating the program extremely or very useful, it’s clear this effort filled a void. Outreach efforts led to more than 90,000 downloads from teachers over two months. Assuming 30 students per class, this program reached more than 2.7 million high school students. In a survey of teachers, 99 percent said they wanted to receive more programs like this in the future.

Conclusions:

Content generated from FDA’s formative research on youth e-cigarette prevention combined with Scholastics extensive market research of educators— via an opt-in teacher survey—created a successful outreach campaign that will contribute significantly to FDA’s efforts to reduce and prevent youth tobacco use.

Implications for research and/or practice:

Data- and research-informed campaign development practices result in more effective messaging and outreach. In addition, collaborating with a partner who also sees the value of data-informed decision making can enhance outreach efforts and extend the reach of the campaign.