Tobacco 21 Marketing Plan

Background: On October 1, 2018, San Antonio became the first city in Texas to increase the minimum legal sales age for tobacco products including electronic smoking devices, from 18 years to 21 years. This public health measure is intended to reduce the number of young consumers of tobacco products and, in time, reduce overall tobacco addiction.

Program background: To create awareness on the new ordinance San Antonio Metropolitan Health District developed a marketing campaign to reach 18 to 21 year olds. The strategic plan of the marketing campaign was to focus on the audience and reach them with content and in the media channels where they frequent. The digital placement was the main focus for advertisements.

Evaluation Methods and Results: In an effort to increase awareness of the new legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 years to 21 years the marketing efforts were lead and involved the target audience. The marketing efforts kicked off with a press conference on October 1^st. The press conference was held at Alamo Community College. The key speakers were 18 to 21 year olds. Digital ads began airing that day. A video describing the new ordinance was produced using teen actors. The focus was a retailer informing a teen “you can’t buy tobacco” and peer teens also shopping at the convenience store stating “you don’t need it anyway.” The television spot ran on multiple local television stations. The video was also shared on youtube and other social media platforms. Digital ads also ran beginning the day of the press conference. The placement of digital ads was specific to 18 to 21 year olds across the city. Geo targeting ads were also placed specific to colleges and high schools. The strongest social media engagement in the five month campaign was from Snapchat. Engagement on the social media network delivered above the national rates.

Conclusions: Digital ads and social media placements were the best tools to engage with the target audience. Monitoring social media platforms has uncovered that teens in San Antonio are more receptive to share and engage with other teens. If we can continue to grow awareness on the negative effects of tobacco and use teens to speak to other teens the message becomes more relatable.

Implications for research and/or practice: The development of the video was reviewed by a focus group of teens. The digital ads were designed with a concept of notebook paper to make the material familiar to teens. Snapchat filters and digital ads were created with a background of a style of notebook paper. The intent of the design was to share your story and that tobacco did not need to be a part of a teen’s story.