The goal of the extensive Communications Plan was to help the Public Health Department gain the most value from its investment. Since many of the members of the client group were unfamiliar with marketing and advertising practices, as a value-added service, the Plan also offered a primer on various aspects of marketing.

In addition to acting as a blueprint for the resulting creative campaign, the Communications Plan provided specific suggestions on how The City of Ottawa could extend the value of its paid media through an effective media relations campaign. It also included a guide to creating unique community information events that would allow supporters of the Smoke-Free Ottawa Campaign to attract and educate their peers in the community.

The award-winning Smoke-Free Ottawa campaign, included "teaser" ads, radio spots and transit signs created to lure the audience to the client's Web site. The visibility of the campaign resulted in 68,895 hits on the Web site during the first week of posting, a response that far outstripped the client's initial expectations.

Once interested citizens got to Smokefreeottawa.com, the electronic component of the Smoke-Free Ottawa campaign, they were offered several added-value functions, including a poll to determine the level of support among constituents and links that allowed users to directly contact their city council representative.

Results

The campaign was credited with increasing levels of citizen involvement, which included a public debate that continued for more than 14 hours. This debate led to a unanimous vote of council in favour of passing the by-law.

The client attributes much of the success of the passing of the actual by-law to public support garnered by the campaign.