Effectiveness of Statewide Advertising Campaigns in Promoting the QUITPLAN^® Services Brand

Abstract

The current study explored the role of advertising in building an effective cessation service brand in Minnesota, United States. Using data from a ClearWay MinnesotaSM campaign evaluation ( N = 1,361), this study examined how mass media advertising works to reinforce recognition of the QUITPLAN Services brand, brand favorability, and brand attributes. Respondents with confirmed awareness of television campaign ads were significantly more likely to report ever hearing of the brand than those who were not aware of the ads (odds ratio [OR] = 4.28, p < .001). In addition, confirmed ad awareness correlated with brand favorability (β = .37, p < .001) and attributes (personalized: β = .50, p < .001; respectful: β = .43, p < .001; proven: β = .42, p < .001; accessible: β = .46, p < .001), and there was a significant relationship between brand favorability and intention to quit among smokers (OR = 2.44, p = .001). The findings in this study contribute to the literature on social marketing and health branding by demonstrating effective strategies for establishing a cessation service brand. Practical implications, research limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Seeing the Big Picture: Multitasking and Perceptual Processing Influences on Ad Recognition

“…Because the different recognition measures are thought to reflect unrelated underlying mechanisms they are often considered to be qualitatively different and not considered to be part of a hierarchy or continuum of recognition (Gardiner and Parkin 1990;Yonelinas 2002). While recent advertising studies appear to predominantly utilize measures of familiarity recognition (i.e., Peters and Leshner 2013;Lee et al 2013;Walsh et al 2013;Liu et al 2013), this may not always be the best measure for what ads actually do for brands: create brand associations (e.g., Samu and Krishnan 2010). Going forward, work utilizing recognition memory should be considerate of this distinction and how different characteristics of recognition memory may interact with audience-level (e.g., the media activity SEEING THE BIG PICTURE 181 or knowledge/traits) and ad-level variables (e.g., ad context or features) in separate ways.…”

Seizing an opportunity: increasing use of cessation services following a tobacco tax increase

“…ClearWay Minnesota actively promotes QUITPLAN Services through a mass media campaign that includes television, radio, billboards, bus sides, and other channels. These efforts have resulted in 71% of adult Minnesotans reporting having heard of QUITPLAN Services [ 11 ].…”