The challenge

Reading Borough Council wanted to make it easier for residents to quit smoking. The council had signed up to the Smoke Free app, a clinically proven digital stop smoking tool to sit alongside its existing face-to-face services.

Not everyone can make it to an in-person appointment. Shift workers, parents and people with busy lives often miss out on support. The council needed a launch campaign to reach those people and get them downloading the new Smoke Free App.

Our approach

We built the campaign around our existing ‘Better Than a Smoke Break’ creative and messaging which was developed in response to insights that smokers see smoking as a ‘break’ from their busy lives. Instead of leading with health warnings, it meets people in the moment they reach for a cigarette and shows them what quitting could give them back: more money and more time with the people they love.

We adapted the creative assets for Facebook and Instagram and designed a printed A5 leaflet for distribution across Reading. This creative featured real-life testimonials from people who had used the app. We also wrote key messages and social copy for the council’s own channels, and a two-week paid META campaign ran during May targeting residents in Reading.

Impact

In its first week, the campaign reached 35,741 people in Reading and generated 1,608 link clicks from 241,769 impressions. The average cost per click was just £0.18 – strong value for a local, geographically targeted campaign.

We closely monitored how our creative assets were performing and adapted where needed. During the second week we created a carousel, and it made a real difference. After it launched, the click-through rate doubled from 0.54% to 1.08%, cost per click dropped from £0.19 to £0.16, and the same ads started reaching more people more often. The carousel alone drove 429 clicks.

 

“”Working with Blue Lozenge was easy and efficient from start to finish. We’ve already made huge progress in supporting residents to quit smoking, with rates falling below 10% for the first time, and their support helped us tell that story with real impact.”

Oluwatumininu Owa Public Health Program Officer (Stop Smoking and Tobacco Control), Reading Borough Council.

If you would like help to run a campaign, contact us at: hello@bluelozenge.co.uk