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Case History:
Falcon Safety Products Inc. - "National Inhalant Abuse
Campaign"
A horrendous tragedy inspired a call to action around an
otherwise unaddressed issue: teen inhalant abuse. R&J
successfully assisted client Falcon Safety Products to
partner with the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition for
this important cause, engaging television, radio and
newspapers across the country to raise awareness on this
important health and safety issue.
 
  
In the wake of a horrendous tragedy involving the death of a
young teenager, R&J Public Relations identified a tremendous
need. R&J launched a comprehensive educational
campaign about the dangers of inhalant abuse on behalf of
Falcon Safety Products Inc., manufacturer of the Dust-Off
brand of electronics cleaning products, including the
“original” compressed-gas duster. The overall goal of the
campaign was to raise public awareness about the dangers of
inhalant abuse, which is the intentional inhalation or
sniffing of common household products for the purpose of
getting high. Inhalants are easily accessible, legal,
everyday products that when intentionally misused or abused,
can be deadly. Falcon takes inhalant abuse very seriously,
using several communications tools to spread the word about
the deadly effects of the practice, including proactive
public communication, aggressive warning labels on its
products and supporting advocacy groups, including the
National Inhalant Prevention Coalition (NIPC).
R&J built a communications campaign involving the father of
an inhalant abuse victim, who died tragically after inhaling
the contents of a Dust-Off compressed-gas duster. The
father, Officer Jeff Williams of the East Cleveland police
department, had reached out to Falcon following the death of
his son and asked how the company could do
more in regards to inhalant abuse. After discussing Falcon’s
previous efforts and attempts to battle the issue, Mr.
Williams and Falcon agreed to work together in communicating
the dangers of inhalants. R&J used National Inhalants and
Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW), as a
timeframe for launching an educational campaign about
inhalant abuse.
Campaign tools consisted of both broadcast and print
initiatives, including the production of public service
announcements (PSA), a video news release (VNR), audio news
release (ANR), satellite media tour (SMT), b-roll, matte
feature and an inhalant abuse fact sheet and school action
plan that would be distributed to more than 44,000 school
counselors and nurses. Furthermore, R&J developed a media
relations strategy to use Mr. Williams as a spokesperson and
the NIPC as a resource for journalists. Activities began in
earnest in January 2006.
To find “proof” that inhalant abuse was a significant
problem, R&J utilized research from the National Institute
on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America to help develop the overall strategy and messaging
for the inhalant abuse educational campaign. The specific
research included the NIDA’s 2005 Monitoring the Future
Survey (MTF) and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s
2004 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), which found
that:
-
More
than 22.9 million Americans have abused inhalants at
least once in their lives
-
The abuse of inhalants is on the rise
-
17.1 percent of 8th graders, 13.1 percent of 10th
graders, 11.4 percent of 12th graders have abused
inhalants at least once
-
There’s a significant drop in the perceived risk of
abusing inhalants among teens
-
Parental response in regards to the risk of inhalants is
high
-
Parents are less likely to discuss inhalant abuse with
children than cigarettes, alcohol or other drugs
The research findings from the 2005 MTF survey and the 2004
PATS study conclusively indicated that teens, parents and
educators, were to be the main audiences targeted by the
educational campaign.
When R&J uncovered the “proof” that inhalant abuse awareness
was low, the agency determined a mass awareness campaign was
needed to reach teens, parents, and educators. R&J determined appropriate tactics to reach
these audiences and developed a day-by-day planning schedule
that encompassed deadlines, tasks, and progress reports. To
determine the reach of the awareness campaign, overall
success would be measured by the total number of
impressions. R&J worked with MultiVu to produce and
distribute the various components of the broadcast campaign
and coordinated the shoot of the PSA, ANR, portions of the
VNR and b-roll, at the Williams household in Ohio. However,
to extend the awareness throughout the year and to reach out
to parents and educators as teens returned to school, the
SMT would be conducted later on in the year in October. For
the production and distribution of the educational matte
feature, R&J utilized the services of the North American
Precis Syndicate (NAPS), and for the educational email
campaign, R&J worked with Market Data Retrieval (MDR), a
provider of marketing information and services for the
education market. All components were finalized and set for
distribution on Thursday, March 16th, the day of the NIPAW
press conference in Washington, D.C.
The NIPC, the organizing entity of NIPAW, held its annual
press conference on March 16th in Washington, D.C. The press
conference was held to announce NIPAW and to discuss recent
findings and current initiatives regarding inhalant abuse.
Mr. Williams was invited to be a guest speaker at the event
and R&J worked with the NIPC to coordinate media interviews
both on and off site and provided hard copy b-roll to all
attending media. The distribution of all components of the
campaign, excluding the SMT, took place on Friday, March
17th. MultiVu immediately began to track and monitor the use
of the VNR, ANR and b-roll, beginning with what was used
during newscasts the day of the NIPAW press conference.
Additional reporting was made available by MDR, regarding
the success of the email campaign and by NAPS, regarding
usage of the matte feature.
 Part
two of the educational campaign was a SMT conducted in New York City. The goal of the SMT was
to educate the public about the dangers of inhalant abuse
specifically focusing on teens’ return to school and the
temptations of peer pressure. Additionally, a separate goal
of the SMT was to announce Falcon’s successful reformulation
of its compressed-gas duster. After substantial R&D and
financial investment, Falcon was able to incorporate an
additive to its product that makes the contents of the can
extremely unpalatable to those who attempt to abuse it.
Falcon’s ability to successfully make the modification to
the duster was of sincere importance to Mr. Williams, as he
had been an advocate of it since his son’s death.
Overall, Mr. Williams conveyed the “dangers of inhalants”
message throughout each component of the campaign and in
individual interviews with the media, he took full advantage
of each opportunity to accurately deliver key study findings
and speak credibly as a subject matter expert. Additionally,
Mr. Williams offered a clear call to action, urging parents,
educators, and young adults to visit the Web sites of the
various agencies noted above for more information and facts.
Furthermore, R&J secured various interviews for Mr. Williams
throughout the year, including local news stations in Ohio
as well as national programs, including the NBC
Nightly News, CNN’s Paula Zahn Now and
CNN Headline News.
By total impressions alone, the integrated campaign far
exceeded any expectations by Falcon, the NIPC and Mr.
Williams. Based on reporting that tracked the use of sigma
encoded materials, Nielsen ratings and clippings, the total
impressions recorded, broken down by component, were:
Total Recorded Impressions = More than 116 Million
VNR:
41,094,386 ANR: 38,353,581
PSA:
19,027,763 SMT: 5,414,893
NAPS Feature: 12,771,392 Email Campaign: 11,964
Additionally, from a return on investment perspective, based
on the amount invested by Falcon to fund the overall
campaign, R&J was able to deliver a 3,500 percent rate of
return, with an estimated ad value of $6.5 million.
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