In this issue:

NBC Adopts Prevention Themes in Popular Teen Line Up

Phase III of Media Campaign Takes Off

Numbers Show Success and Potential for Drug Control

The Campaign in the Community: The Wisconsin National Guard

Fleishman-Hillard Heads Program and Outreach Initiatives

Ogilvy & Mather Leads Advertising Component

Advertising Council Awarded Contract

ABC and AOL Partner With ONDCP; Online Areas Launched for Parents, Youth, Prevention

Campaign Ads Now Available on Web Site

Media Campaign Reaches Multi-Cultural Populations

Pro Bono Advertising Match Aids Local Organizations

"Parenting is Prevention" Teleconferencing Initiative: 1999 Calendar

Online Banner Ads
Reach Target Audiences

The interactive advertising program for Phases I and II built a strong online presence for ONDCP's media campaign, informing young people and adults through targeted ad banner placements on a number of Internet and online sites including Yahoo!, Discovery, Hotmail, and America Online.

Interactive banner ads are similar to print ads in that they can be used to promote an organization's messages or brand. Viewers were encouraged to "click through" these banners to reach ONDCP and partner web sites and gain additional information online. The banners are linked to drug education sites, such as , which provide insightful and involving content.

"The Internet is in a unique position to educate our target audiences," said Stu Cowan, management supervisor for interactive and direct marketing at Bates USA, the contracting agency for Phases I and II. "The interactive medium engages kids when they are just one mouse-click away from a world of educational resources."

Because only 2 percent of the initiative's total advertising budget is devoted to the Internet, ad placements and subject matter must be selected with precision. This relatively small proportion of the budget, however, does not correspond to the impact the medium has on youth audiences. In 1998, 6 million kids aged 12 to 17 had access to the Internet, and that number is projected to grow to 15.2 million by 2002, according to Jupiter Communications, the leading Internet analyst firm.

The "click through" success of a given ad depends on a number of variables, including the position, graphics, and content of the banner, the site user's demographic profile, and the context of the page on which the ad is placed.

Experience has shown that the most frequently "clicked" ads are those that strike people both intellectually and emotionally, hitting on such hot-button topics as the known links between drugs and falling school grades or drug rejection and the fear of losing friends. The challenge, however, has been to induce these complex thoughts and emotions while overcoming the space and technological restrictions of banner ads.

One of the campaign's most popular banner ads includes a poll (pictured) asking kids, "Your best friend just refused to use drugs. How would you react?" Another ad with a high "click through" rate depicts a marijuana leaf and poses the important question: "Is marijuana really so bad for me?" Clicking the ads reveal answers in line with the campaign's objectives and messages.

In the last quarter of 1998, the 60 percent of Internet ad impressions directed at youth concentrated on two of ONDCP's communication objectives:

• Use of drugs is likely to lead to a variety of negatively valued consequences, and
• Enhance personal and social skills that promote positive lifestyle choices as well as resistance to drug use.

During that same time, the 40 percent of ads targeted toward parent/caregiver audiences focused on, "enhancing perceptions of harm associated with adolescent use of marijuana and inhalants."

The campaign took a targeted, strategic approach to banner creation and placement, Cowan said, "because it is imprudent to try and address every ONDCP communication objective simultaneously."

All interactive partners are required, at a minimum, to match 100 percent of ONDCP funds spent on banner ads. Beyond this one-to-one match, most partners have agreed to value-added, "goodwill" matches, which exceed the value of simple banner ads. Such matches have included promotions, "buttons" (small, strategically placed ads), and even entire Web sites devoted to the ONDCP marketing objectives. Examples of major partnerships include a Web site developed by ABC and Disney Online for "tweens and teens" <www.freevibe.com>, as well as an industry first - a drug information area for parents available on America Online called the Parents Drug Resource Center (AOL Key Word: Drug Help), developed with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. (See related story about the launch of online areas for parents and young people.)