Today is No Smoking Day and there have never been so many different support devices available to smokers to help them quit the habit.Just a very quick look around the official No Smoking Day website reveals an ‘e-mail buddy’ scheme for quitters, a well patronised ‘stop smoking forum’ where you can share experiences and seek support, a comprehensive calendar of stop smoking events to attend in your area and even a ‘print your own quitting certificate’.
With so many people taking the decision to ‘stub it out’ in recent years the NHS is needing to be ever more inventive and creative in its tactics to encourage the remaining, possibly more entrenched, smokers, to consider quitting.
This is the challenge we inherited at SHOUT!PR when, at the end of last year, we were asked by NHS Notts to devise and deliver a campaign to help boost their 4-week quitter figures in the county.
We decided we wanted to stop nagging smokers about giving up and so instead targeted our efforts at their loved ones and friends! - asking them to do the talking for us and encourage the smoker in their life to give quitting a try.
We designed a printed pledge, including a prize draw function for quitters - 25 wii fit sets were also up for grabs in a prize draw. Some 30,000 pledges and POS material were distributed to local NHS and local authority outlets, and local employers to make available to staff.
Anecdotal feedback on the campaign so far has been extremely positive and now we are just waiting for the new figures for 4-week quitters in the county since Christmas.
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