Tracking SurveyResearch Report (Wave 18)

May 2011

Prepared for:

Margaret White, Deputy Director

Danny Saggese, Director of Marketing

Prepared by:

Jason Maurice, Senior Research Associate

Curtis Mildner, President

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. KEY FINDINGS 1

II. EXECUTIVESUMMARY 3

III. SUMMARY REPORT 6

A. YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness and Perceptions 6

B. Social Perceptions of Smoking 19

C. Social Behavior and Self Perception 26

D. Demographic Characteristics 32

APPENDIX A: Methodology 37

APPENDIX B: Survey 41

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness Across Waves 7

TABLE 2: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Region Across Waves 8

TABLE 3: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Age Across Waves 9

TABLE 4: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Race/Ethnicity Across Waves 10

TABLE 5: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Sex Across Waves 11

TABLE 6: What do you remember hearing or seeing about the Y Campaign? 12

TABLE 7: General Impression of the YDOUTHINK Campaign Across Waves 13

TABLE 8: Friendship Status with YDOUTHINK Across Waves 15

TABLE 9: Perceptions of the YDOUTHINK Campaign Across Waves 17

TABLE 10: Perceived Direction of Smoking Among Youth Across Waves 20

TABLE 11: Number of Best Friends Who Smoke Cigarettes Across Waves 24

TABLE 12: Favorite Style of Music 27

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness Across Waves 7

FIGURE 2: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Region 8

FIGURE 3: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Age 9

FIGURE 4: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Race/Ethnicity 10

FIGURE 5: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Sex 11

FIGURE 6: What is your general impression of the YDOUTHINK campaign? 13

FIGURE 7: If YDOUTHINK was a real person, would you be friends with this person? 15

FIGURE 8: Perceptions of the YDOUTHINK Campaign 17

FIGURE 9: Perceived Direction of Smoking Among Youth 20

FIGURE 10: Do you think young people who smoke cigarettes have more friends? 22

FIGURE 11: Does smoking help people feel comfortable in social situations? 23

FIGURE 12: Number of Best Friends Who Smoke Cigarettes 24

FIGURE 13: In an average week when you are going to school, how many nights do you go out to have fun? 28

FIGURE 14: How late do you usually stay out on weekends? 29

FIGURE 15: Social Descriptors 30

FIGURE 16: Self Perceptions 30

FIGURE 17: YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Social Concern 31

FIGURE 18: Region Breakdown 33

FIGURE 19: Sex 33

FIGURE 20: Age Group 34

FIGURE 21: Race 35

FIGURE 22: Hispanic Origin 35

FIGURE 23: Grades in Previous 12 Months 35

FIGURE 24: Adult Listened in on Survey 36

ii

I. KEY FINDINGS

YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness and Perceptions

·  Awareness of the YDOUTHINK campaign has declined to 55% from 64% in the spring of 2010, continuing a decline begun in the fall of 2008 when 76% were aware of the campaign.

o  Awareness of the VFHY campaign is lowest in the North (41%) compared to the Central (55%), Southwest (58%), and Southeast (70%) regions.

o  Awareness of the campaign is higher among 15 to 17 year olds (64%) compared to 10 to 14 year olds (49%).

o  Awareness of the campaign is slightly lower among white, non-Hispanic youths (52%) compared to others (60%).

o  Boys (55%) and girls (54%) are equally aware of the YDOUTHINK Campaign.

o  Awareness has significantly declined across most demographic groups since Wave 17. Awareness dropped…

§  21 percentage points among youth in the North.

§  13 percentage points among youth in the Central Region.

§  8 percentage points among youth aged 10 to 14.

§  9 percentage points among youth aged 15 to 17.

§  11 percentage points among white, non-Hispanic youth.

§  7 percentage points among youth or other races.

§  12 percentage points among girls.

§  7 percentage points among boys.

o  Awareness rose or stayed the same since Wave 17 in only 2 groups

§  Awareness did not change among youth in the Southeast.

§  Awareness rose 6 percentage points in the Southwest.

·  20% of youths remember seeing or hearing a commercial about YDOUTHINK but didn’t remember anything specific, while 17% remember the message “smoking is stupid”.

·  Three in four youth (77%) aware of the campaign like the campaign with 43% liking the campaign a lot.

·  73% of youth say they would be friends with YDOUTHINK if it were a person their age.

·  A majority of youths completely agree that the YDOUTHINK campaign is meaningful (78%), believable (67%), and easy to understand (58%).

o  Compared to Wave 17, there has been a 16 percentage point drop in the proportion of youths who completely agree that the YDOUTHINK campaign is easy to understand.

Social Perceptions of Smoking

·  About half (47%) think that smoking among people their age is increasing while 16% think it is decreasing.

·  The majority (74%) say that none of their best friends smoke cigarettes.

·  Almost one in every five (16%) youthsfeel that young people who smoke cigarettes have more friends.

·  Two in five (40%) youths feel smoking helps people feel comfortable in social situations.

Social Concern

·  Youth with mid-level Social Concern (63%) are more likely to be aware of the campaign compared to others (low-44%, high-37%).

o  Since Wave 17, awareness among youth low in Social Concern declined 19 percentage points.

o  Since Wave 17, awareness among youth high in Social Concern declined 35 percentage points.

·  Youth low in social concern (57%) are less likely to say they would be friends with the YDOUTHINK campaign compared to youth medium in social concern (79%) and those high in social concern (79%).

·  Youth low in social concern (37%) are less likely to say that smoking is increasing among youth their age compared to others (medium social concern 52%, high social concern 52%).

·  Youth high in social concern (52%) are more likely to say smoking cigarettes makes people more comfortable in social situations compared to youth medium (38%) or low (33%) in social concern.

·  Youth high in social concern (39%) are more likely to have best friends who smoke compared to youth medium (23%) or low (12%) in social concern.

II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Introduction

The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY-formerly the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation) was created in 1999 by the Virginia Assembly to promote healthy living habits among 10 to 17 year olds throughout Virginia. Initially, the foundation focused on reducing tobacco use among youth; however, in 2009, VFHY added prevention and reduction of childhood obesity to their mission. VFHY accomplishes their mission through the development of educational programs in both the classroom and community; a youth marketing campaign, and supporting enforcements of Virginia’s tobacco-access laws.

In 2002, VFHY began a multimedia marketing campaign with the goal of reducing tobacco use among 10 to 17 year olds. The Y Campaign (YDOUTHINK) targets youth through television and radio commercials as wells as an interactive web site. Since the beginning of the campaign, VFHY has been evaluating the campaign through a tracking survey administered every 6 months to a year in order to assess awareness of the campaign as well as attitudes and behaviors as they relate to smoking.

The current research provides tracking numbers for the 18th Wave of data collection. These data were collected between March 22, 2011 and May 4, 2011. The results are based on a statewide sample of 601 Virginia youth aged 10 to 17. Data are weighted to reflect the demographic breakdown of the most recent census population estimates for Virginia.

YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness and Perceptions

In the spring of 2011 (Wave 18), fifty-five percent of youth were aware of the YDOUTHINK Campaign. This is a 9 percentage point decrease in awareness compared to the spring of 2010 (Wave 17). Campaign awareness dropped across wave 17 and 18 among all demographic groups including age, race, and sex. Campaign awareness dropped in two regions with a 21 percentage point drop among youth in the North (41% vs. 62% in Wave 17) and a 13 percentage point decrease in the Central Region (55% vs. 68% in Wave 17). Awareness remained relatively stable among youth in the Southeast (70% vs. 70% in Wave 17) and Southwest (58% vs. 52% in Wave 17) regions.

Despite a drop in awareness overall, among youth aware of the campaign a majority (77%) like the campaign with the vast majority of youth saying it is meaningful (92%), easy to understand (90%), believable (88%), and cool (80%). Youth living in regions that saw the largest drop in awareness (North and Central) also tended to see the campaign as less believable than youth in other regions. Furthermore, these two regions also saw relatively large decreases in ratings of the believability of the campaign across Wave 17 and 18. Specifically, within Wave 18, 78% of youth in the North and 87% of youth in the Central regions saw the campaign as believable compared to 95% in the Southeast and 92% in the Southwest. Across Wave 17 and 18 there was a 16 percentage point drop in believability in the North and an 8 percentage point drop in the Central region compared to no change in the Southeast and a 2 percentage point increase among youth in the Southwest.

Youth aware of the YDOUTHINK Campaign remember a variety of specific messages and images. About seventy percent of youth remember something specific, with the largest proportion remembering the message that smoking is stupid (17%) and a little more than one in twenty remember the image of kids licking trashcans (7%), the slogan “Can anybody tell us why smoking isn’t stupid?” (7%), how smoking can affect pets (6%) and the logo of a yellow Y in a circle (4%). One in ten remembers a commercial that discusses the dangers of smoking cigarettes (11%).

Social Perceptions of Smoking

In addition to questions on campaign awareness, the survey used in Wave 18 included questions on perceptions of smoking within young people’s social environments. About half of youth perceive smoking among youth as increasing (47%) while a little less than one in five say it is decreasing (16%).

The majority of Virginia youth (74%) say that NONE of their best friends smoke cigarettes. This compares very favorably with national estimates derived from the most recent data available from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS)[1] which showed that 60% of youth aged 10 to 17 said that NONE of their best friends smoke cigarettes.

In general, youth have negative social perceptions of cigarette smoking. Only sixteen percent feel that smokers have more friends. Two in every five (40%) believe smoking helps people feel comfortable in social situations.

Conclusions

The VFHY Y-Campaign continues to resonate with many Virginia youth. The vast majority of 10 to 17 year olds like the campaign and find it to be meaningful, believable, easy to understand, and cool. Awareness of the campaign, however, has decreased overall as well as among all ages, races, and genders since Wave 17. Awareness has also dropped among youth living in certain areas of Virginia, notably the North and Central regions. The drop in awareness among youth in these two regions coincides with a drop in the believability of the campaign within these same two regions. This might suggest that some youth are tuning out the message because they are beginning to feel that the message is not believable or doesn’t apply to them. It should be noted, that even though there has been a decline in believability within these regions a majority of youth still rate the campaign as believable.

The visual imagery of the campaign and the messages associated with these images remain a strong component of the campaign. However, as discussed above some of the images may be too unbelievable for some youth, making them less likely to pay attention to the campaign. That being said, using strong emotional imagery and messages continues to be a hallmark of effective tobacco use prevention media campaigns.[2]


III. SUMMARY REPORT

A. YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness and Perceptions


Awareness of the YDOUTHINK campaign has declined to 55% from 64% in the spring of 2010, continuing a decline begun in the fall of 2008 when 76% were aware of the campaign.

TABLE 1

YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness Across Waves

Wave / Date / N / % Aware
1 / Spring 2002 / 604 / 5%
2 / Fall 2002 / 603 / 58%
3 / Spring 2003 / 614 / 58%
4 / Fall 2003 / 602 / 75%
5 / Spring 2004 / 602 / 76%
6 / Fall 2004 / 600 / 74%
7 / Spring 2005 / 600 / 78%
8 / Fall 2005 / 602 / 77%
9 / Spring 2006 / 600 / 79%
10 / Fall 2006 / 597 / 74%
11 / Spring 2007 / 600 / 76%
12 / Fall 2007* / 600 / 76%
13 / Spring 2008 / 600 / 75%
14 / Fall 2008* / 600 / 76%
15 / Spring 2009 / 600 / 70%
16 / Fall 2009* / 605 / 67%
17 / Spring 2010 / 604 / 64%
18 / Spring 2011 / 601 / 55%
*Note: Denominator for awareness calculations includeonly those who reported seeing or hearing information about smoking.


Awareness of the VFHY campaign has declined sharply in the North (62% to 41%) and Central (68% to 55%) regionswhile increasing slightly in the Southwest (52% to 58%) region.

TABLE 2

YDOUTHINK Campaign Awareness by Region Across Waves

Wave / North
(% Aware) / Southeast
(% Aware) / Central
(% Aware) / Southwest
(% Aware)
7 / 85% / 72% / 81% / 70%
8 / 77% / 85% / 70% / 76%
9 / 82% / 79% / 77% / 76%
10 / 75% / 82% / 68% / 68%
11 / 77% / 79% / 76% / 71%
12 / 74% / 82% / 68% / 88%
13 / 69% / 81% / 80% / 71%
14 / 74% / 75% / 80% / 76%
15 / 61% / 75% / 77% / 63%
16 / 47% / 77% / 85% / 63%
17 / 62% / 70% / 68% / 52%
18 / 41% / 70% / 55% / 58%

Awareness of the campaign is higher among 15 to 17 year olds (64%)compared to 10 to 14 year olds (49%).