Hands' (TV and banner); 'Dad' (press); 'Mood Swings' (press and banner)
Partnership for a Drug-Free America
Issue 5 | July 2008
Agency
Wunderman
Creative Team
Nick Moore - Chief Creative Office;Kevin Carlisle - Art Director;Leigh-Anne Wiester - Copywriter
Production Team
Susan Lekanides - Agency Producer; Fred Slobodin - Agency Director of Broadcast; David Feikens, MacGuffin Films - Production Company; Joe DeFilipps, Just Add Water - Editing House; Julian West, MacGuffin Films - Director
Other Credits
Amanda Schneider - Account Manager
Date
July 2007 - ongoing
Background
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America is a non-profit organisation focused on educating kids, teens, parents and communities about the risks and consequences of alcohol and drug abuse and the benefits of living drug-free. The TimeToTalk.org campaign is a year-round awareness campaign designed to encourage parents to begin talking to their kids about the risks of drugs. The objective of these executions was to drive traffic to the TimeToTalk.org website by convincing parents that they have the power to help keep their kids drug-free. At TimeToTalk.org, parents can get the help they need in starting and continuing the conversation about drugs and alcohol with their children.
Idea
Wunderman's creative solution was driven by a startling statistic: children who learn about the risks of drugs from their parents are up to 50% less likely to use. Parents, however, do not know this and in reality feel helpless when it comes to preventing their kids from using drugs. This is compounded by the fact that talking to teens in general is no easy task.
The challenge was to empathise with parents, not preach to them. Most importantly, it was necessary to convince them that they do in fact have the power to help their kids lead drug-free lives - and that help is here in the form of TimeToTalk.org. The agency decided on a simple and straightforward approach to convey that this is a no-brainer: you can either talk or stay silent.
Results
During the first three weeks of the media launch, TimeToTalk.org received 6,774 site visitors across more than 25,450 pages. Each visitor was spending more than 4.5 minutes on the site, viewing an average of four pages. 62% of site traffic was coming from users going directly to TimeToTalk.org (as opposed to coming from a referring site or search engine).
Target Audience
Parents of tweens and teens aged nine to 18. The average age of the parents is 40 years old.
Size
30 second and 15 second TV spots, a full-page newspaper ad, two full and several partial-page magazine ads and two web banners.
Our Thoughts
Great direct marketing coming out of the USA has been in short supply in recent years. Perhaps they are concentrating on digital communications, where they lead the world. So it is good to see that Nick Moore is doing his best to raise the bar at Wunderman in New York. The strategy – getting parents to talk to their kids openly and honestly – seems to me both sound and sensible.