strategy

Drug-Free America Effort Goes Mobile

Check YourselfWith teens--and their parents--increasingly living mobile lives, using the handsets for chatting, texting and surfing the Web, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America is launching its first campaign geared specifically for mobile devices.

"Our most important [purpose] is to make sure our content gets to people where they can really use it," Hilary Baris, director of digital media and marketing for the Partnership, tells Marketing Daily. "Digital media has proven to be one of the most exciting and effective ways to get the Partnership's messages out to this generation of parents and teens."

Of course, mobile is nothing new, especially for teens and their parents. But the partnership relies on pro bono contributions from agencies and media partners to get its work done, Baris says. In this case, the media partner is Ringleader Digital and the agency contributor is Contagious. "We have a lot of stars aligning at the right time to bring this to life."

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The pro bono effort uses banner ads from two ongoing interactive efforts--the teen-oriented "Check Yourself" and the parent-aimed "Time to Talk"--reformatted to work on mobile platforms. Once they are at the mobile WAP sites, parents can sign up to receive their first "talk tip" via text message, and teens can use the Check Yourself site to examine their relationship with drugs and alcohol and share the site with friends via text messaging.

"The beauty of mobile is that people can respond instantly, and it [can be] viral so you can forward it immediately to other people. "We can go from just having a monologue to having a dialogue, so that parents can get that first talk tip right on their mobile screen."

The mobile campaign will run for three months. The partnership will be evaluating the campaign regularly to determine what works and what doesn't, and will change things accordingly, Baris says. "The beauty of digital and mobile is that things can be optimized very quickly."

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