United States Postal Inspection Service

2 SMRT 4U Internet Safety Campaign

 2 SMRT 4U Internet Safety Campaign Category: Small Budgets Brand/Client: United States Postal Inspection Service Primary Agency: Campbell-Ewald Advertising

Strategic Challenge
The Wild, Wild West: With the birth of social networking sites and chat rooms, the Internet has become a community unto itself. There are no rules or police to monitor what goes on in its vast space.

Unfortunately, there also comes the unrealistic perception that what happens online, stays online. Most teens believe that when they post content, theres a safety net protecting them from others when, in fact, many sexual predators seek and prey upon insecurities hidden behind words on a social networking site.

The Pressure to Be Online: Today, there is incredible peer, social and cultural pressure for teen girls to be connected online, in a way that is self expressive and portrays them as fun, hip, provocative and sexy.

In doing so, many naively include information about themselves that can easily reveal where they live, go to school, spend their free time, and their personal appearance.

In short, theyre unknowingly creating the perfect lure for a sexual predator. In fact, research reports that one in seven youths is sexually solicited online.*

Unfortunately, being safe while online is not necessarily top-ofmind since many teens have few rules and/or lax monitoring in their homes.

Theres believed to be no real threat or harm in having a little fun online. After all, its what everyone does. This mindset makes them vulnerable to increasingly savvy online sexual predators.

More Alarming Statistics* 70% of all unwanted online solicitations are targeted at young females 45% post their age or date of birth 34% post their real names, telephone numbers or addresses 69% regularly receive communications from someone they dont know**

Objectives Campaign Objectives:

The campaign had several key goals: 1. Build awareness of Internet risks.
Create demand for 100,000 2 SMRT 4U rings that would serve as a daily reminder of Internet risks

Create campaign awareness among majority of the teen target.

2. Engage, educate and change online behavior. Generate Web site traffic for ring orders and online safety tips. (Visiting the MRT4U.com site to just order a ring was not enough; it was desired that a large percentage of visitors read the online safety tips content as well). Convince target to set online profile privacy settings. Generate discussion around online safety. Reduce target willingness to meet face to face with someone they first met online.

3. Create program ambassadors that would spread the message virally amongst peers.
A limited media buy could not spread the message alone; a bulk of the campaigns effort needed to rely on non-paid media to spread the message.

The Big Idea

Create a wake-up call for teen females about the risks of the Internet by providing them with a battle cry and a new defensive attitude (as embodied in the 2 SMRT 4U ring) that they could rapidly embrace, champion and share, leading to immediate changes in their online social behavior.

Realizing that a traditional, media-centric effort would be financially unfeasible (and likely ineffective since teens tend to be skeptical of many mass media channels), the USPIS needed to identify a way to frame this cause and trigger a viral, peerdriven initiative to get the message out.

This would be a tall order, given that most marketers acknowledge that changing opinions and behaviors with teen females is a high hurdle to cross!

Central to the research insights was empowering teens to educate their peers on this problem.

Key Insight
the girls placed a high priority on taking care of not only themselves, but also their friends.

Creating a tangible reminder would keep online safety top-of-mind.

Lets Hear What the Girls Have to Say:

Next, to confirm that the creative concepts communicated the message in an engaging, credible and relevant manner, multiple minifriendship groups were conducted among Internet savvy teen females, since teens often listen to and talk freely to their friends about their online experiences.

The creative idea that the girls found most compelling was a ring which would serve much like a string around ones finger that girls could order, wear, share with friends, and remind them to think twice before posting inappropriate information online.

 The Internet safety message would be most effective if:

a. The teen audience was allowed to discover it themselves. b. It was delivered it in an interesting, unique manner that would allow it to be integrated into teens daily lives.

 The ring had to appeal to influential older teens, which would make it an aspirational, must have item for younger girls.

 Celebrity affiliation was viewed as a key component to the success of the program, with the celebrity needing to be established, well-known, smart, and accessible.

into

Key Insight Tap into three mainstays of female teen life .

1. Friends, 2. Fashion and 3. Celebrities. In doing so, ultimately a new channel was created to convey the message and provide a conduit for its viral life the 2 SMRT 4U ring

The ring would be a simple, embossed, stainless steel ring featuring the catchy IM-style 2 SMRT 4U slogan.

Multiple rings per order would be offered, empowering girls to help spread the message amongst friends as a: means of looking out for one another, while having something cool to wear.

Bringing the Idea to Life

While the 2 SMRT 4U ring was the centerpiece of the campaign, teens helped to develop and influence the communications, and in doing so, provided themselves with a great sense of ownership.

The Perfect Partner: Given the limited budget, a promotional partnership was developed with TEEN VOGUE because of its background in successful marketing partnerships, their ability to reach the teen influencer market, and its experience as a teen fashion expert that aligned with the need to have an aspirational piece of jewelry.

As a partner, they would guide USPIS on celebrity selection, assist in promoting the ring via multiplatform advertising and grassroots events, and create initial buzz via peer-to-peer contact.

Celebrity Influencer:
TEEN VOGUE was able to use its name and expertise to obtain a key ingredient to the campaign: Hayden Panettiere, at the time, star of the upcoming and soon to be hit TV series Heroes. Haydens image and support would be included in all elements of the campaign.

TEEN VOGUE IT Girls: Engagement of TEEN VOGUEs influential online reader panel (80,000 teen females) to embrace the idea, evaluate various campaign elements, and disseminate the campaign message and ring.

In Book: Kick-off the print campaign with a four-page advertorial containing tips and information on how to stay safe online as well as details on how to order the 2 SMRT 4U ring.

 Message was reinforced with five singlepage ads in monthly issues of the magazine. Each ad portrayed Ms. Panettiere wearing the ring in different, eye-catching trendy positions on the finger, thumb, or even as a charm on a necklace to show its versatility.

Web Site: Development and hosting of 2SMRT4U.com, the official Web site with online safety tips, ring fulfillment, cool downloads, real-life teen stories adapted from true NCMEC cases, and links to additional Internet safety resources.

The sites simple layout and message tonality made it easy and fun to navigate unlike other online safety sites that catered to many ages of youth.

Web Banners: Web banners placed on teenvogue.com and on its exclusive IT Girl micro site to reach girls while online.

Events:
Ring distribution at several TEEN VOGUE events. Rings were first distributed at the TEEN VOGUE Fashion University in October 2006 (prior to print launch) to allow girls to discover the ring, and seed the message cross-country.

This event attracted 500 girls from over 42 states and 4 countries. Pairing the 2 SMRT 4U name with an empowering Type smart. Post wisely. theme line on all creative elements helped to further reinforce the online safety message.

Reach: National Total Media Expenditure: Under $500 Thousand Results Strong Results: 1) Build Awareness of Internet Risks: a. Goal: Create demand for 100,000 2 SMRT 4U rings that would serve as a daily reminder of Internet risks.

Source: Ring fulfillment November 14, 2006 August 30, 2007. b. Goal: Create campaign awareness among majority of the teen target. Result: 77%campaign recall. Source: TEEN VOGUE IT Girl Survey Pre-Wave, October 2006, and TEEN VOGUE IT Girl Survey Post-Wave, April 2007.

2) Engage, Educate and Change Online Behavior:

a. Goal: Generate Web site traffic for ring orders and online safety tips. Results: 426,345 unique visitors; 1,050,873 page views. Source: AW Stats, November 2006 August 2007

b. Goal: Convince target to set online profile privacy settings. Result*: 18% increase in female teens that have done so.

c. Goal: Generate discussion around online safety. Result*: 34% discussed online safety with family and friends.

d. Goal: Reduce target willingness to meet face to face with someone they first met online. Result*: 50% decrease in incidence of doing so among target. *Source: TEEN VOGUE IT Girl Survey Pre-Wave, October 2006, and TEEN VOGUE IT Girl Survey Post- Wave, April 2007.