Maximizing the Impact of Digital Media Campaigns to Promote Smoking Cessation: A Case Study of the California Tobacco Control Program and the California Smokers' Helpline.

Digital media are often used to encourage smoking cessation by increasing quitline call volume through direct promotion to smokers or indirect promotion to smoker proxies. The documentation of a program's experiences utilizing digital media is necessary to develop both the knowledge base and a set of best practices. This case study highlights the use of digital media in a proxy-targeted campaign to promote the California Smokers' Helpline to health care professionals from October 2009 to September 2012. We describe the iterative development of the campaign's digital media activities and report campaign summaries of web metrics (website visits, webinar registrations, downloads of online materials, online orders for promotional materials) and media buy (gross impressions) tracking data. The campaign generated more than 2.7 million gross impressions from digital media sources over 3 years. Online orders for promotional materials increased almost 40% over the course of the campaign. A clearly defined campaign strategy ensured that there was a systematic approach in developing and implementing campaign activities and ensuring that lessons learned from previous years were incorporated. Discussion includes lessons learned and recommendations for future improvements reported by campaign staff to inform similar efforts using digital media.