Compact News: CDC Press Release: Tips From Former Smokers campaign generates 150,000 calls to quitlines and 2.8 million website visits

Thursday, September 19, 2013

CDC Press Release: Tips From Former Smokers campaign generates 150,000 calls to quitlines and 2.8 million website visits

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Press Release

Tips From Former Smokers campaign generates 150,000 calls to quitlines and 2.8 million website visits

Quitline calls spiked dramatically when 2013 ads were running; fell quickly when they were not

Infographic: "Impact of 2013 Tips From Former Smokers campaign on Quitline Calls and Web Visits"
Full Accessible Version [402 KB]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2013 Tips From Former Smokers campaign produced more than 150,000 additional calls to 1-800-QUIT NOW, a number that links callers to their state quitlines, according to a report in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The campaign also generated almost 2.8 million additional visitors to the campaign website, www.cdc.gov/tips. The website features information on the campaign, as well as information on how to quit smoking from the National Cancer Institute's www.smokefree.gov website.

These figures represent a 75 percent increase in call volume and a nearly 38-fold increase in unique website visitors, compared with the four weeks before the campaign began. The analysis also found that average weekly calls fell by 41 percent and website visitors fell by 96 percent during the four weeks after the campaign ended.

The 2013 campaign's television component included national ads in all 210 U.S. television markets and additional local ads in 67 of these markets. The television buy used a "pulsing" strategy in which the national televisions ads aired on a 1-week-on, 1-week-off basis for the first 12 weeks of the campaign, while the local television ads ran continuously throughout the campaign. The number of calls fell by 38 percent during the six weeks when the national television ads were off the air, compared with the six weeks when the national ads were airing. These findings suggest that a longer campaign with sustained broad reach could produce even greater benefits, including more quit attempts and successful long-term quits.

"The TIPS campaign continues to be a huge success, saving tens of thousands of lives and millions of dollars; I wish we had the resources to run it all year long," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "Most Americans who have ever smoked have already quit, and most people who still smoke want to quit. If you smoke, quitting is the single most important thing you can do for your health – and you can succeed!"