CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVE

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Parents Speak Up campaign was developed to promote parent-child conversations about sexual activity that emphasized family values and delaying sexual initiation.  The client sought to reach parents of teenagers with public service announcements (PSAs) that encouraged communicating with their children about making healthy and responsible choices in regard to sexual activity, and drive parents to the campaign website to access tools to help overcome communication barriers.  The campaign used a behavior-change model which predicted that parental exposure to the PSAs will result in increased parent-child communication promoting the delay of the initiation of sexual activity by communicating the advantages of abstinence.  The increase in parent-child communication was intended to serve as a proximal behavioral outcome leading to the child choosing to be abstinent.

 

 

STRATEGY

Three versions of each television and radio PSA were produced: an English language version targeting a general market audience; an English language version targeting African American parents; and a Spanish language version targeting Hispanic parents.  The spots contained messages to promote the self-efficacy of parents to initiate conversations, thereby reducing parent’s fear to communicate the health risks of early sexual debut and convey the benefits of waiting.  The PSAs encouraged parents to visit the campaign website (www.4parents.gov) to access tools for reducing communication barriers.

 

Special attention was given to the Spanish language spots and using culturally-appropriate phrasing to be acceptable to Hispanics who tend to be sensitive to openly discussing issues of sexuality.  The African American spots featured culturally-relevant characters and speech intended to appeal to an African American audience.

 

The PSAs were distributed to 700 television stations and 2,500 radio stations nationwide, to reach the maximum number of local stations and national networks accepting PSAs for broadcast to an adult audience aged 25-55.  Special focus was placed on stations located in markets with high teenage pregnancy rates, top Nielsen-ranked markets, and markets with a high percentage of Hispanic and African-American TV homes.  Distributions were timed to occur during the school vacation periods when parents generally have more face-to-face time with their kids.

 

Extensive media outreach was conducted following the launch of the campaign to encourage as much usage as possible.  Pitching was conducted in English and Spanish (as appropriate), and the pitch angle was adjusted for the type of outlet (TV or radio, local or national) and for the target audience of the media outlet (general market, African-American or Hispanic).  

 

RESULTS (as of 12/31/09)

 

TV Airings: 38,742

Radio Airings: 101,873   

TOTAL Airings: 140,615

 

TV Audience Impressions: 221,006,130

Radio Audience Impressions:  405,385,850

TOTAL Audience Impressions:  626,391,980

 

TV Media Value: $6,479,506

Radio Media Value: $ 7,040,299

TOTAL Media Value: $13,519,805

 

PLACEMENT HIGHLIGHTS

We secured coverage on a total of 827 TV stations and 2,269 radio stations in every market nationwide.  Campaign highlights include airings in every U.S. media market, with national network placements on CNN Airport Network and CNN Headline News, two cable networks targeting African-Americans (BET and TV One) and four Spanish-language networks (Galavision, Telemundo, Telefutura, and Univision). 

 

Compared with other campaigns, the Parents Speak Up TV PSAs earned 160% more airings, 29% higher audience values and 24% higher media values than the average of all other campaigns of similar size and scope managed by my team during the same time period.

 

The Parents Speak Up Radio PSAs earned over six times the number airings that other radio PSA campaigns received during the same period, with 17 times higher audience impressions and over 600 times the average media value.  These results are inflated due to the media buy associated with this campaign.  (The type of technology used to track the radio PSA airings did not allow for differentiation between PSA airings and media buy airings).

 

Additional highlights include:

 

• Top 12% of TV PSAs tracked by Nielsen (ranked 266 out of  2,140)

• 48% of TV airings on national networks and top 25 markets, with 66% of airings in top 50 markets

• Telemundo Spanish-language broadcast TV network fed to affiliates over 1,000 times

• Radio airings covered 24 of the top 25 markets

• Over half of radio airings (56%) in top 50 markets

 

OUTCOME

A study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health (No. 45, 2009, pg. 409-416) found that exposure to the messages in the Parents Speak Up National Campaign were efficacious in promoting parent-child communication about sexual debut and abstinence. 

 

In addition, the George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services’ Case Study of the Parents Speak Up National Campaign found a significant improvement in self-efficacy among parents exposed to the campaign messages, indicating confidence in their ability to communicate with their child about waiting to have sex.  Examining results by race shows that 45% of white parents had directly asked their child to delay sexual debut after exposure to the PSAs, while 33% of black parents and 28% of Hispanic parents had done so.  These results showed significant improvement over the parents who had not been exposed to the PSAs.