Online promotion of the smokefree txt text messaging smoking cessation program: Strategies and lessons learned

Mobile technology adoption has skyrocketed in the United States over the past five years, with cell phone ownership amongst American adults rising from 75% in 2007 to 87% in 2012. To capitalize on this shift, and further engage American smokers who want to quit smoking, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) launched SmokefreeTXT, an evidence-informed, text message based cessation program. This presentation will explore the program's promotional activities, elucidating campaign strategies and lessons learned from promoting a texting program for health behavior change. A two phase online campaign was launched in late 2012, with the goal of increasing subscriptions to SmokefreeTXT. Phase one consisted of two web-based mini-campaigns, launched in conjunction with the Great American Smokeout and New Year's Day. Phase two, launching this summer, will consist of a larger, multi-segment campaign built on lessons from phase one. Target audiences will include US teens, adults, and Spanish speaking adults. Phase one produced 3,883 new SmokefreeTXT subscriptions and 41,795 visits to the Smokefree.gov website. Results from phase two and additional quantitative indicators of outreach effectiveness (e.g., social media engagement, website metrics) will be discussed. The demand for convenient, reliable and supportive smoking cessation resources in the form of text messaging appears to be high, with strong evidence for its effectiveness. Phase one results indicated that organizing integrated promotional activities around a unifying event (e.g. New Year's, Great American Smokeout) proved effective. Additional lessons learned from both phases and future directions for promoting SmokefreeTXT will be articulated.