Party Safe, Party Smart

By: Hannah M. Martin

100932766

COMM3301A: Social Marketing

August 14th, 2015

Joseph Boughner

Party Safe, Party Smart

By: Hannah M. Martin

Overview and Context:

The issue that I am concerned with and will be developing a cause for is the abuse of

synthetic drugs (Ex. MDMA, Ecstasy) within post-secondary communities. This issue holds

significant importance in today’s society because of the health and safety risks associated with

synthetic drug use. Peer pressure is playing a significant role in the consumption of these drugs

across post-secondary communities. The implications of inaction will surely result in the

continued increase in the consumption of these particular drugs, as well as the potential for

increased levels of negative long-term mental health effects on its users (depression, anxiety,

memory loss, ability to focus, ability to make critical and smart decisions, etc.).

Heather Callier (2011) outlines the history of MDMA (also known as “Ecstasy” or “Molly”).

She informs us that it was first created in 1912 by a scientist named Anton Kollisch as a means

to decrease appetite and pain for German soldiers during World War I. It wasn’t until the 1980’s

that MDMA was appearing in the public and was used as a “fun drug” at dance clubs. By the

time the 1990’s hit, MDMA became one of the most popular drugs in the United States (Callier,

2011). In 2002 the first campaign was directed to educate the public on the effects that this

harmful chemical drug had on youth. The use of television and print advertisements is what

drove this campaign. The exposure to these advertisements increased awareness of the harm

of synthetic drugs by 12% in one year. Nevertheless, in today’s society synthetic drugs are still

commonly used by youth, which clearly signals that something more needs to be done about

this.

Right now, teens and young adults attending college and university are feeling pressure to

consume synthetic drugs like MDMA and Ecstasy to fit into a specific crowd, and some may be

finding it as an alternative to alcohol consumption. The consumption of this drug is often seen at

music festivals, but has also been traced to nightclubs, bars, and other nontraditional scenes. In

order to help prevent the peer pressures of synthetic drug use by college and university

students, we must inform youth and parents about the dangers of such drugs. Barriers that

might intervene with this approach may come in the form of popular media and media depictions

of chemical drugs and recreational drug use. Many messages in popular media may clash with

messages and marketing techniques directed at changing the behaviours of our youth in a

positive and efficient way.

Environmental Scan:

Looking at the other campaigns and organizations that are looking at a similar topic to

me would be Health Canada and PDFC (Partnership of a Drug-Free Canada) which look at

eliminating drug-use within all of Canada. They are planning on doing this by educating parents

and youth on the harmful effects of all illicit drugs and how to start the conversation with the one

you love. In other countries this issue is still ongoing. In the United States, Minnesota

Department of Human Services (2015) has created a website called "Know the Dangers.com"

which was created to inform the public about the harmful effects of synthetic drugs and how to

start the conversation about this issue. They also have their website updated with recent stories

of abusers to keep their audiences alert and in the know of what is going on. The Australian

government has also been battling this same issue, which is why they have a National Drug

Campaign (2015), which gives their audiences (parents and youth), information on code names

for specific drugs, pictures on what they look like, information on what the drug is made out of,

signs of a user, what to do in an emergency and basically all negatives aspect about all drugs.

Organizational Objectives:

Ultimate Goal: the overall objective is to decrease the amount of harm and

hospitalization that is caused from synthetic drug use.

o High-Level Goal: To decrease the amount of synthetic drug use in college and

university communities.

Supporting Objectives:

Give youth better alternatives to synthetic drugs

Create a resource that is easily accessible for youth and parents

o High-Level Goal: Better market the long-term health effects to show the

unappealing side of synthetic drugs.

Supporting Objectives:

Educate our youth on not only short term but also, long-term

mental and physical health effects.

Record the amount hospitalizations caused by synthetic drugs

Marketing Objectives:

My initial marketing objective that I have chosen is to record the amount of hospitalizations

caused by synthetic drugs. To make this supporting objective more “SMART” I must first narrow

my focus. I will be doing this is by looking at youths falling between the ages of 18-24 years,

even more specifically looking at how many of these hospitalization are post-secondary

students. These hospitalizations will be measured according to a timeframe of four months,

three times a year. The first timeframe will begin from September to December, followed by one

from January to April, and finally May to August. This will allow me to track when students are

more actively consuming drugs , and I can explore factors to determine why this may be. Being

able to record the peak of drug consumption will enable me to better market this cause at

particular times of the year. This will allow me to help change the behaviours of my audience’s

decision to not consume synthetic drugs. In regards to social marketing, this is relevant because

I am aiming to change the behaviour for the greater good of individuals. My specific objective

from the narrowed focus and changed behaviours is to see synthetic drug consumption

decrease 10-15% within post-secondary youths ranging from 18-24 years in age, within the first

year of this marketing campaign. This is a realistic goal that I think can be successfully achieved

because instead of only educating our audiences, we will be using a fear tactic to change the

behaviour of our audiences.

Strategic considerations:

There are things that I need to consider that might be slight barriers to my campaign. The first

thing that I must consider that my major idea of using hospitalizations within a specific area as a scare

tactic to my audience, might be easier said than done. Getting hospitals to willingly release this

information will be difficult as privacy becomes an issue. However, if I have Health Canada as a potential

stakeholder for my cause this might overcome this barrier. My second barrier that I could find within my

campaign would be getting institutions like Carleton University, University of Ottawa and Algonquin

College to support my cause, and allow me to have an information table or desk on campus. Having a

campaign targeting student on campus can be seen as a threat to an institution because it can influence

one's decision to attend their school or not. However, if the institution cares about their student's well

being, they should be accepting to wanting to support my campaign. The last consideration that I must

look at is what was mentioned previously about our mainstream media and the heavy influence they

have on my target audience and their peers. The mainstream media's messages are powerful and tend

persuade my audience into thinking that consuming illicit drugs is acceptable, therefore I must make

sure that my campaign's messages are strong and it really impacts their perspective. This is why I think

having one-on-one conversation with students will break the silence and make it more comfortable to

make conversation about the topic. Tactics will me mentioned in later on, which will give more ways to

overcome this barrier.

Audience:

The main audience that I will be targeting will be students attending post-secondary

institutions falling between the ages of 18-24 years old. More specifically, this will be marketed

towards people who are currently doing drugs or feel pressure from their peers to experiment

with drugs. My secondary audiences are parents, family members and friends of the user or

potential user. The reason I want to target them as well is because they have the power to sway

one's habits over and break the ice on making conversation about synthetic drugs. If I were to

take my audiences and break them down into two separate personas my primary audience

would have a variety of characteristics. The demographics of my primary audience is strictly

looking at has already been mentioned (18-24 years old, attending post-secondary). Giving their

age this means they are just entering adulthood and have not yet gained a large amount of life

experience. They are also either high-school educated, or are in the middle of their post-

secondary education. The careers that these people hold, are generally part time jobs which

means they have a low personal income. This audience all have general goals towards a career

after school, which means they also have a goal to graduate. However, they make the decisions

to become involved in synthetic drugs because they also look forward to having fun during post-

secondary and meeting new people. However, these things can clash because if you have a

goal to graduate, but you also want to have fun with doing drugs you can blur the line between

what holds more importance. It is normal to see a student focus on the wrong priorities at school,

and get involved with the wrong scene. Once a person is heavily involved with doing drugs, and

they do not have a bad experience with it, its makes it hard to get one to change their behaviour.

One might resist my campaigns efforts to create change because of the heavy influence from

their peers to get involved with doing these synthetic drugs, and they don't see the harmful

effects of them. Looking at the type of personas that I have described, these journey maps will

give a step by step process of how one might decide to experiment with synthetic drugs. This

will also allow me to figure out where my audiences could be best targeted throughout their

journey into experimenting with synthetic drugs like MDMA.

Journey Map #1: Johnny Entering Drug World

#1: Johnny is going into high school

o Johnny makes new friends in gym/health class

o I could market to youth in high school, who are starting to gain more

insight on drugs. This could be done by face to face conversation, giving

my information pamphlets to their teachers to handout. I could also make

sure to speak over morning announcements or hang posters in the

hallways of high schools.

Johnny is invited to a party with an older crowd.

Johnny talks to parents about party

Parents explain to him about drinking responsibly

Targeting parents so they have correct information on how to

handle conversation and how to approach their children

about the topic. This could be done by sending information

kits in the mail or sending it home with students.

o When Johnny Attends party he is offered to smoke

Marijuana

Johnny accepts this offer and becomes friends with

this group of smokers

Johnny is informed about drug abuse in

health class

o Johnny builds up curiosity on these,

drugs but doesn't experiment with

anything else but Marijuana

Johnny has completed high

school and is now graduating

Johnny is now attending college and is living in residence

Make sure to hang posters all over residence and set up information booths near

residences when students are moving in. This way I can not only target my

primary audience, I can also inform parents and peers

o Johnny finds friends who drink and smoked at his "Frosh Week" and

becomes friends with them.

o Give information out inside frosh kits when students arrive to they can gain

information about the dangers of synthetic drugs, and can be informed on

how to say no, go against peer pressure and to start the conversation

about drug use.

The first rave of the school year is coming up, and Johnny wants to

attend

Make sure to try and advertise campaign by getting in contact with

company hosting rave... Write on their Facebook page, and have

attendees of the rave on Facebook be followed with advertisements

on their Facebook feeds.

Johnny attends with new friends. The conversations of doing

synthetic drugs (MDMA) goes on before rave

Advertise on tickets with my campaign promoting to not do

synthetic drugs, this way Johnny has something to change

his mind about NOT doing them... Or makes him uneasy

about doing them.

o Johnny attends rave drunk, but witnesses people taking

synthetic drugs (MDMA) at show.

Johnny goes to school and talks to friends

about what he saw

Promote cause around school, having one on

one conversation to students to try and

persuade them to not try or experiment with

synthetic drugs.

Friends mentioned that they want to try it at

next rave

o Johnny wonders what MDMA is like

while listening to music which

supports synthetic drug use.

Johnny talks to people

who have done it and say it

was AMAZING.

Be sure to promote the

negatives on synthetic

drug use, to make

audiences uneasy about

experimenting.

Johnny tries MDMA at the next rave he attends

o Johnny becomes an avid user of MDMA, as well as his friends

Johnny overdoses at rave, and dies in hospital.

Journey Map #2: Sally's Bad Experience

Sally is in her 5th year of university

o Sally's friends have all graduated

Sally makes new friends in one of her classes

Promote cause before lectures so that large class and listen to what

we have to say about drugs. This way I am able to target a large

audience all at once. This also will allow for my cause to spread to

others, because it start conversation within friend groups.

Sally's new friends love to drink and party on weekends

Sally was invited to go to lunch with her new friends

Sally's New friends invited her to come to a

party on the weekend

Sally say's she will pass

o Sally's new friends pressure her into going

Sally is successfully convinced and decides to attend

Set up booths on campus where traffic is walking by and inform

students how to say no to peer pressure before it's too late. This

way I am able to have one-on-one conversation and get actual

opinions from students.

Sally attends party and isn't too drunk, but is having fun

o Sally's new friends think she is so much fun

Sally's friends are all smoking outside

One of Sally's friends whispers and asks if

Sally wants to pop a pill.

o Sally says no.

Sally's friends decides to

take a pill

Sally see's the effects of the drug on her friend, and her friend looks like she is having an

AWESOME time, but Sally is worried for her well being

o The next Monday, Sally's friend says she is going to "pop" again on the next

weekend

Sally doesn't know how to confront her friend about the negative

effects of drugs

Make sure to inform on website about how to start the conversation.

This can be done by advertising over social media, or using a

hashtag to draw more attention to our website.

Sally is invited by her friend to attend rave over via Facebook

o Sally feels like she isn't fun so she decides to confirm

she's going

o Have my Facebook ads follow a user when they

confirm they are attending a specific event that

involves synthetic drugs. This will allow

Sally is on the bus to school and wonders what

it's like to experiment to MDMA

Make bus ads targeting students to no

experiment with drugs. This way when students

are commuting to school they will see these

ads.

Sally builds up curiosity

o Sally ask's her friend about her

experience

Is tempted to try synthetic

drug

Looks online to read other's experiences with taking MDMA

o Reads lots online about positive experiences

Goes on YouTube to watch videos of the "rave" or "Festival" scene,

to see if it her thing

Have emotional or shock factor ads that play before watching videos.

If these videos have an emotional aspect to them or a shock-factor,

it will be more susceptible and more likely to impact one's decision.

This is seen a lot, for example: Cigarette packages, Drinking and

Driving commercials, etc.

Listens to music on soundcloud to get herself amped for the

rave

See if advertising on soundcloud would be possible. This way

anyone who using this app to listening to electronic music

will have to read or see this ad before their music starts. This

could also be done on other music websites, or apps.

o Decides that she will try synthetic drug

Goes to rave with friends and decides to pop

Comes home after rave, head is in so much

pain she must go to hospital.

o Hospitalized for three days.

Stakeholders:

In order to market this in a clear and successful way I must have a variety of potential

stakeholders that will be willing to fund me and support my cause. Health Canada (2015) could

be a major stakeholder because of their expertise with educating and targeting youth to not

abuse illicit drugs. Their focus is on “preventing, treating and combating illicit drugs and

prescription drug abuse” (Health Canada, 2015). Partnership for a Drug-Free Canada (PDFC)

might be a potential stakeholder because of their devotion to educating parents about their

children abusing drugs. PDFC (2015) sees that the abuse of illicit drugs has become a large

concern within youth today and they think that parents have the most power to stop this drug

abuse. They target parents by using media to educate in an easy and effective way (Partnership

for a Drug-Free Canada, 2015). My approach is different from both of these organizations

because instead of strictly just educating parents and youth on how to prevent the abuse of illicit

and prescription drugs, I am taking an approach where I gather information on the actual tolls of

hospitalizations and marketing fear towards youth. This will hopefully work with more success

because our youth can physically see how synthetic drug use is affecting their peers around

their community. I have not found a specific organization that looks at strictly synthetic drug

abuse towards youth; therefore the potential opponents would be the wide range of

organizations that look at targeting parents and youth on illicit drug and alcohol abuse.

Possible Tactics:

Opportunities for this cause would be that because the age group that I am targeting

falls under a post-secondary cluster, therefore I can take advantage of the assets readily

available to me on their campuses. A second opportunity would be to engage my audience by

using school websites to advertise my cause. Marketing this cause successfully could be done

handing out pamphlets and displaying a variety of posters around campuses. I could also get

involved with classes by engaging large groups of youth and speaking out about why this is an

issue and find out who is affected by it. Setting up information booths around campuses, in

festivals, and outside of raves to educate and inform the user and their peers about why what

they are consuming is bad, and why they should care about this issue. I believe that targeting

the audience at the primary area of abuse might also create a type of scare-tactic for my

audience. They might see the booth and read about the information and choose to not do these

synthetic drugs. Almost everyone you meet that is between the ages of 18-24 years old, and is

attending post-secondary is on some sort of social media website (primarily Facebook). With

this in mind I think that making a Facebook ad would be helpful, because I can set it so that if

someone is attending an event like a rave, music festival, dance club, bar, etc. on Facebook,

then my ad will follow them and their friends. So the constant reminder to not consume synthetic

drugs is there, and if they need more information they can click the add and it will take them to

my informative website on synthetic drugs. This website will give statistics and information on all

negative aspects of synthetic drugs, and will give suggestions to make conversation about the

topic easier. I could also make YouTube Pre-roll ads to give audiences emotional videos with a

"shock-factor" to encourage them to not experiment with synthetic drugs. This would be a great

tactic because I would be able to create my ads, so if someone were to click the video it would

draw them to my informative website, I would also be able to measure how many people are

watching my ads, and how many people are clicking my ad to be referred to my website. The

last tactic that I have thought of would be to make some sort of care package which gives the

receiver information about consuming synthetic drugs and hospitalizations within the area, real

stories from local and regretful users of this drug, information on what to do in case of an

emergency and some sort of pin or sticker which they can wear and promote the cause with on

their bag or belongings. This care package can be handed out during festival seasons, at raves,

and can be given to new students entering university or college during their "frosh." To measure

if my actions are successful I will have an anonymous survey for people who have attended a

rave, or music festival to fill out. The survey will ask something along the lines of this:

Please check off any of the following options:

o Drank alcohol at this festival

o Smoked Marijuana

o Consumed MDMA, Ecstasy, other synthetic drugs

o All of the above

o Went sober

o Only consumed alcohol

o Only consumed alcohol and smoked marijuana

o Consumed drug not listed

I know that this survey might be filled out dishonest. However if the people filling out the survey

know that it is completely anonymous and is strictly for research purposes they will be more

swayed to answer with honesty.

Evaluations:

Marketing Objective:

To see synthetic drug consumption decrease 10-15% within post-secondary youths

ranging from 18-24 years in age, within the first year of this marketing campaign

o Channel Objective:

o Using Facebook ads as a tool to follow attendees of rave and festivals, to try and get

users to click on website to seek more information on cause.

KPI's

Click throughs on the ads

Target

5% increase each 1/3 (January-April, May-August, Sept- Dec)

Time on website who are coming from these advertisements

Target

Increase in website views by 2% each month of my campaign

o Channel Objective:

o Use end of event survey to measure if my campaign is working

KPI's

Seeing how many people are attending event with the plan of consuming

Synthetic drugs.

Target

7% decrease within the first four months of campaign

How many people are going and not attending festival on drugs.

Target

10% increase overall within first four months of campaign

o Channel Objective:

o YouTube Pre-roll Ads link audiences to informative website to give more information on

given cause.

KPI's

Time on website who are coming from these ads

Target

3% increase on time spent on website

See how many times a user has clicked through different pages on the website

Target

10% on people clicking through pages on website and time on each

page.

Bibliography

H. Callier, H. (2011). Risky Behavior, Ecstasy, and Education. The Shirley Hufstedler School of Education, 1-65.

Health Canada. (2015). Substance abuse. Retrieved July 16, 2015, from HYPERLINK "http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/healthy-living-vie-saine/substance-abuse-toxicomanie/index-eng.php" http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/healthy-living-vie-saine/substance-abuse-toxicomanie/index-eng.php

National Drug Campaign. (2015). Retrieved August 6, 2015, from http://www.drugs.health.gov.au/

Partnership for a Drug Free Canada. (2015). About Us. Retrieved July 16, 2015, from HYPERLINK "http://www.canadadrugfree.org/about-us/" http://www.canadadrugfree.org/about-us/

Synthetic Drugs // Start the conversation. (2015). Retrieved August 6, 2015, from

http://knowthedangers.com