Quit Blowing Smoke

1
Quit Blowing Smoke

• Effective New Media and Social Marketing Campaigns

2
Local Smoke-free Housing Project

• Established in 2006
• Led by American Lung Association
• in Oregon (ALAO) 4 county health
• departments
• Serves Portland, OR/ Vancouver,
• WA metro area
• Mission Reduce renters exposure to secondhand
  smoke by increasing the number of properties with
  a no-smoking policy
• Funded by American Legacy Foundation, Northwest
  Health Foundation

3
Local Smoke-free Housing Project

• Conduct outreach and provide technical assistance
  to both landlords and tenants
• Public resources
• Web site www.smokefreehousingNW.com
• A Landlords Guide to
• No-Smoking Policies

4
Evaluation of Project

• Components
• Baseline renter survey in 2006
• 3-year repeat survey to be conducted summer 2009
• Number of Web site visits, landlords and renters
  assisted
• Smoke-free rental ad tracking since 2007,
  monthly tracking of local print and online
  apartment guides, includes Craigslist

5
Goals of Rental Ad Tracking

• Make it easier for tenants to find smoke-free
  rentals
• Increase ads promoting smoke-free amenity
• Increase apartment guides with smoke-free search
  criteria, e.g., check box
• 2009 OR Landlord Disclosure Passes!

6
National Apartment Guide Outreach

7
Building Momentum Letter Campaign

• Partnered with Live Smoke Free MN
• 30 signatures gathered from smoke-free housing
  advocates _at_ NCTOH 2007
• Sent letter/signatures to 13 national apartment
  guides

8
Success of Rental Guide Outreach

• June 2008 Apartment Guide adds new
  Non-Smoking Living page to print guide
• Template available nationwide
• Search option on national Web site
  www.apartmentguide.com

9
Success of Rental Guide Outreach

• Jan 2009 OregonLive.com adds check box (online
  version of The Oregonian)

10
Success of Rental Guide Outreach

• Results realized LiveJournal blog!
• Smoking allowed apartment buildings...
  where?I've started calling around  making
  appointments to see apartments in Portlandso far
  I have called eight places, and only ONE allows
  you to smoke in your apartment.

11
Craigslist

• Why?
• International Web site available in
• 570 cities
• 50 countries
• Popularity
• 20B hits per month
• 50M people use per month, including 40M in the US
• Free, large housing classifieds section
• Statistics from www.craigslist.org/about/factshee
  t

12
Craigslist Phase 1 Outreach

• Begins summer 2007
• E-mail and phone outreach
• Key ALAO volunteer assisted with outreach
• Posted smoke-free housing ad targeting
  landlords
• (Idea from Smoke-free Housing Coalition of Maine)

13
Craigslist Phase 1 Results

• E-mail response from Craig Newmark!
• Shared our request with his CEO Customer
  Service Manager
• Craig, Founder Jim, CEO

14
Craigslist Phase 2 Expanded Outreach

• Fall 2008 Develop comprehensive advocacy media
  strategy
• Objective Raise awareness and support for the
  ALAOs initiative to promote a smoke-free housing
  option on Craigslist.

15
Craigslist Phase 2 Expanded Outreach Tactics

• Web Site Update ALAO Craigslist Action Page
• Campaign graphics
• Fresh content

16
Craigslist Phase 2 Expanded Outreach Tactics

• E-mail Campaign
• Eye catching, to-the-point invitation explaining
  the campaign and asking readers to get involved.
• Distributed to 2,610 ALAO supporters, encouraging
  them to forward the e-mail onto colleagues,
  friends, etc.
• All graphics/text were consistent with the
  messaging seen on ALAOs Web site.

17
Craigslist Phase 2 Expanded Outreach Tactics

• Signature Line Add Craigslist campaign
  explanation and ask to all organization
  e-mails.
• P.S. Join the American Lung Association in Oregon
  in asking Craig from Craigslist to add a
  smoke-free search box to its rental housing
  search criteria. In less than five minutes you
  can help effect change for renters everywhere.
  Click here for more information.

18
Craigslist Phase 2 Expanded Outreach Tactics

• Craigslist Forum Public forums can be a powerful
  way to generate buzz we took our conversation to
  the core of the campaign Craigslists forum.

19
Craigslist Phase 2 Expanded Outreach Tactics

• Regional Pitch Initiative Distributed e-mail
  invitation with pitch to key regional media
  contacts.
• Press Release Announced campaign and smoke-free
  housing project.
• Optimized release for search engines
• Distributed via wire service and e-mailed to key
  contacts

20
Craigslist Phase 2 Press Release Results

• Wire releases
• Posted on Web sites
• Permanent placement
• Searchable
• Targeted

21
Craigslist CampaignResults So Far

• ALA in Oregon
• Take Action campaign Nov. 08-Jan. 09
• Emails sent 2,610
• Page views 789
• Participants 170
• Email letters sent to Craig Jim 340
• Campaign picked up by ALA in CA ALA in IL

• ALA in California
• Emails Sent 3,453
• Page Views 563
• Participants 306
• Email Letters Sent Craig Jim 612
• ALA in Illinois
• Emails Sent 5,860
• Page Views 214
• Participants 120
• Email Letters Sent (just Craig) 120

22
Lessons Learned/Recommendations

• Lessons Learned
• Create HTML and plain text e-mail campaigns
• Identify point person to manage and expand online
  forum/blog conversations

• Recommendations
• Recruit additional support from the start
  (partners in other states, etc.)
• Emphasize the positive compliment your target
  for their work, stress a win-win situation

23
Looking Ahead

• Ideas for future outreach
• Further establish relationship with Craig
• Facebook
• Twitter
• E-mail
• Request phone meeting with Jim Buckmaster, CEO
• Keep Craig informed
• E-mail studies, trends, surveys, releases, etc.

24
Thank you for listening!

• Contact Information
• Colleen Hermann-Franzen
• American Lung Association in Oregon
• 503-718-6145
• colleen_at_lungoregon.org
• Shannon Brewer Riggs
• Lane PR
• 503-546-7885
• shannon_at_lanepr.com