Above the Influence—the nation’s most visible
drug prevention campaign—continues to assist in the downward trend in youth
drug abuse.
The Media Campaign’s approach to creating, testing and tracking anti-drug
advertising messages is modeled on best practices in the advertising and market
research industries. These practices are more rigorously applied by the Media
Campaign than by most commercial advertising campaigns of similar budget and
size.
Additionally, all scientific and factual claims in ads and on the Campaign's
web sites are reviewed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to ensure
accuracy. Explore this section to learn more about the processes used in
the development and testing of the Media Campaign's ads as well as the latest
on efforts to evaluate the Campaign.
NEW CAMPAIGN VISION
The new approach to the Campaign balances broad prevention messaging at the national ("Tier 1") level with more targeted efforts at the local community ("Tier 2") level.
The Tier 1 national anti-drug advertising campaign will continue to include traditional media, such as television, Internet, and cinema, but will place a greater emphasis on digital media outlets such as Google and YouTube, as well as with social networking partners such as Facebook. The Tier 2 community-based will deliver Above the Influence assets, including additional paid media, on-the-ground youth activities, local partnerships, free Public Service Announcement (PSA) materials, and news media attention to at-risk communities. On-the-ground activities and local partnerships will be key in allowing the Campaign to reach teens with anti-drug messaging in a variety of places – including schools, clubs, worksites, faith centers, and recreational programs. For more information, view the Media Campaign Fact Sheet (pdf).
ADVERTISING RESEARCH & TESTING
To develop new ads and campaign messages, the Media Campaign conducts literature reviews, incorporates input from a variety of experts in public health, prevention, treatment, and advertising, and obtains scientific and factual claim reviews by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Additionally, the Media Campaign regularly conducts exploratory research with groups of teens, parents, and members of affected communities including Hispanic, African American, and American Indian/Alaska Natives. Finally, the Campaign maintains regular communication with an expert panel—the Media Campaign Advisory Team—comprised of public health, prevention, treatment, and advertising experts who advise on Campaign development and strategy.
STEP 2: QUALITATIVE OR “FOCUS GROUP” TESTING
Early in the development phase of all Media Campaign advertising, competing ads undergo a rigorous qualitative evaluation among members of the target audience in at least two geographic markets. During focus group testing, members of the target audiences are gathered together to review ad concepts and discuss them in a moderated setting. Results from this focus group testing are used to improve the messages; only the most promising ad concepts are produced.
STEP 3: QUANTITATIVE OR “COPY TESTING”
Each TV commercial must pass quantitative testing before being aired. Quantitative or “copy testing” places each ad in front of approximately 300 members of the target audience to assess the ad’s ability to strengthen anti-drug beliefs and attitudes; the ad viewers are compared to a control group that does not view the ad. Each ad must significantly strengthen anti-drug beliefs and attitudes in the test group compared to the matched control group that does not view the ad. A TV commercial will not air unless it strengthens beliefs or intentions associated with not using drugs.
The Media Campaign's copy testing approach is cited in the upcoming publication of the "Wiley International Encyclopedia of Marketing" as adhering to Positioning Advertising Copy Testing (PACT), the major industry document on copy testing standards. The article "Copy Test Methods to Pretest Advertisements," is authored by Cornelia Pechmann, Ph.D., and Craig Andrews, Ph.D.
Every week, the Campaign surveys 100 teens to assess how the ads are performing, which measures teen awareness and memory of ads, as well as teen attitudes and intentions about drugs. Additionally, the Campaign surveys 100 parents of teens each week to assess the parent-focused ads. Together, this results in 5,000 teens and 5,000 parents surveyed annually by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.
To perform this research, the Media Campaign uses a tracking study conducted by Millward-Brown, a leading international research company and one of the largest and most reputable independent research suppliers in the industry; clients include AOL, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft.
Tracking study analysis has shown that awareness of Media Campaign messages—specifically, awareness of the Campaign’s youth brand, “Above the Influence”—has a significant positive impact on anti-drug beliefs and intentions. As awareness of Above the Influence grows among youth, youth attitudes and beliefs against drug use and the importance of remaining drug-free, including marijuana, have strengthened as well (see chart below). Further, tracking studies have shown that teens who are more aware of the Above the Influence advertising are more likely to hold stronger anti-drug beliefs compared to those who are unaware of the Media Campaign’s advertising. Anti-drug beliefs and intentions are the best available predictor of actual non-drug-using behavior.
Source: Media Campaign In-market ad tracking
CAMPAIGN MEASURES
Finally, the Media Campaign tracks national trends in teen drug use and parent anti-drug behaviors through a number of external, independent evaluation measures conducted annually. These include: The Partnership Attitude Tracking Survey (Partnership for a Drug-Free America), Monitoring the Future (NIDA/University of Michigan), and National Survey on Drug Use and Health (SAMHSA). While these surveys do not directly measure impact of the Media Campaign specifically, they provide an important context for examining National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign performance. These national independent surveys show a steady decline in youth drug use, which coincides with the presence of the Media Campaign.
Monitoring the Future (MTF) results demonstrate a 25 percent decrease in overall illicit teen drug use since 2001 and a 25 percent drop in marijuana use, a drug that has been the focus of Media Campaign outreach, over the same time period. While the MTF data do not permit attribution to any one cause—including the Media Campaign—for these declines, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is the single largest drug prevention program initiated during this time.
Source: Monitoring the Future, 2008
Promising indicators from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) latest National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) show that youth who’ve seen or heard prevention messages outside of school were significantly less likely to have used any illicit drug or marijuana in the past month than youth who had not been exposed to such messages.
Source: NSDUH, SAMHSA, Sept. 2008
In addition to national surveys that track teen drug use from year to year, other independent studies show promising trends with regard to the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign’s impact on teen drug use.
Dr. Philip Palmgreen et al (2007) concluded that the Media Campaign’s dramatic depiction of negative consequences of marijuana use was principally responsible for its effects on high-sensation-seeking youth. The authors evaluated the impact of the marijuana portion of the Campaign on high- and low-sensation-seeking adolescents. A 48-month time series analysis was conducted on youth in two U.S. counties and found that marijuana use (past 30-day), which had been rising prior to the start of the marijuana initiative, declined in the high-sensation-seeking teen population—the target of the Campaign, as did pro-marijuana attitudes. Similar declines for control substances—alcohol and tobacco—were not observed.
Dr. Douglas Longshore et al (2005) concluded that the Media Campaign can have a synergistic effect on youth drug use when used in combination with school-based prevention programs. The authors conducted a randomized trial of ALERT Plus—a classroom-based drug prevention program. Ninth grade students were randomly assigned to ALERT (a basic drug prevention curriculum delivered in the 7th and 8th grades), ALERT Plus (the same curriculum with booster lessons added for 9th and 10th grades), or a control condition (no curriculum). Past-month marijuana use was significantly lower among the ALERT Plus students who reported at least weekly exposure to anti-drug messages. The authors concluded that the Media Campaign may have led to reduction in marijuana use among youth who simultaneously received school-based drug prevention. This is consistent with other studies that have evaluated the impact of anti-tobacco and anti-drug media messages (Pentz, 2003; Flay 2000; Flynn et al, 1994, 1997).
ONDCP is in the process of awarding an independent contractor to conduct a National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign outcome evaluation. The goal of the outcome evaluation is to demonstrate how and to what extent the dissemination of the Media Campaign’s paid media messages and other Media Campaign activities have contributed to changes in awareness of the Media Campaign’s anti-drug messages as well as youth attitudes, beliefs, and intentions to use illegal drugs.
