Directorate of Health - through to the final of Aller Best

Stopptober is the campaign where readers follow real people who are trying to quit smoking. For 28 days. On camera. This year's campaign managed the masterstroke of surpassing last year's success.

- Sure, I'm the account manager, but it's the whole team that has done the work. They're the ones who should be shining here! They've made a crazy effort.

The first thing strategic group account manager at Aller Media Elizabet Gilleberg says about the Stopptober case for the Norwegian Directorate of Health is that it is a real team effort that lies behind the recent final place in Aller Best.

- We wanted to take the 2021 Stopptober campaign to new heights from the previous year. And it was no easy task, as we won gold in the Media Forum for the 2020 version. The team - primarily Tor Erik Sollid, Thomas Rasmus Skaug and Angelica Prag - followed up with the quitters, as we called the participants, every single day. It was a huge rig that created enormous engagement.

The rig she talks about consisted of daily published videos and articles in tailor-made formats, with continuous follow-up and support. "Veterans" Mona and Glenn from last year were brought in as inspiration. Weekly meetings were held with the client and agency so that the team could continuously optimize and tweak the campaign.

Because Stopptober 2020 was a huge success, Gilleberg admits that it felt a bit like jumping after Wirkola. At the same time, she wasn't worried about whether they would make it.

- We were confident that we would be able to create a good concept. What was new this year was that we increased the reality of the campaign and had a greater focus on reports, both before and during the campaign. We also brought in economist Lene Drange from Luksusfellen," says Gilleberg.

- The increased pressure on the reality section must have made it a bit of a cabal?

- Yes, we do. Last year we had 64 videos from participants. This year the number was 107, almost doubling! In other words, it was a much larger TV production. It also meant that we got closer to reality.

- Stopptober is about life

The concept in 2021, as in the previous year, was for a selection of smokers to very publicly document their highly personal quit attempt through a high volume of articles and reports, and not least through daily home videos. Each participant was given their own campaign page, where readers could follow them directly.

A total of 169 avid smokers registered their interest in participating. The number says a lot: It's not enough to fill out a form to join. The hopefuls must submit a personal video explaining why they should be included.

- We're doing this with the whole of Norway as spectators," says Elizabet Gilleberg.

- Stopptober is a mass appeal from the Norwegian Directorate of Health that doesn't ask people to quit, but to give it a try. They know that if you manage to quit for 28 days, you are very well on your way to becoming smoke-free for good.

The chances of successfully quitting smoking are increased fivefold if you stick with it for the first 28 days. Lowering the threshold for making a quit attempt was one of the most important goals of the Norwegian Directorate of Health. For the six participants, of course. But not least also among the readers.

Having to submit videos every day for the duration of the campaign also means that participants have extra motivation to stick it out.

- When you see the father of a girl who says he's in because he's decided to be a better father to his daughter... That's life. It's one thing for these six people to try to quit, but think of everyone who follows them! It's about so many more people who can be inspired.

Hit the target group at eye level

The contributions and participation of Erik, Randi, Siv, Fred, Magnus and Marcin - combined with customized technical solutions - led to Stopptober 2021 surpassing last year's success with even better numbers.

As many as 41% of people who were asked about their interest in Stopptober said they had one specific participant they wanted to follow throughout the campaign. This is one of the things that tells Gilleberg that readers are actually inspired.

- Today, 9 percent of Norway's population are smokers. If we look at the readership figures for the Stopptober campaign, we saw that as many as 48 percent of them were smokers. This means that almost half of those who read the articles and watched the videos were smokers, i.e. right in the middle of the target group," says Gilleberg.

- Can you tell us more about the target group?

- Yes, it was smokers between the ages of 35-70, but of those, it was the well-adjusted adults we wanted to meet. This fits in well with Statistics Norway's figures, which show that people between the ages of 55 and 64 smoke the most in this country.

- How important is it that you didn't give instructions at all?

- Very important. Our task was to encourage and support, but there was to be no staging whatsoever. It had to be the participants' own experiences, so it was as natural as possible. These are real people we're dealing with. It was important for us to bring that out.

Big boosts on almost all parameters

Stopptober 2021 had exactly the same budget as the previous year. At the same time, the Directorate of Health wanted to achieve more. Aller Media's challenge was to manage it in the best possible way. The results indicate that they succeeded.

- Yes, we did. In particular, we saw increased numbers when it came to reading the articles. We had more page views, more clicks to the Norwegian Directorate of Health's Slutta app, and QE decreased by 3.3 percent. In other words: Quality increased! And we reached 3 percent more smokers. We also saw it in the equation afterwards," says Gilleberg.

- Yes?

- We had a like score of 88 percent. The median value in Aller Media is ten percent lower. This means that those who have read, have liked what they have read!

If we look at the proportion of people who see themselves as smoke-free in the future, 51 percent who had not followed the campaign said they did.

- Among those who followed the campaign, 70 percent thought of themselves as smoke-free in the future. This is a difference of 19 percentage points. In other words, a boost of 37 percent.

- That's a big leap?

- "Absolutely," says Elizabeth Gilleberg, "33 percent of readers felt more confident that they could quit smoking for good. 30 percent wanted to try to quit smoking themselves. That's what you might call ... reaching out to people!