Communications

Internal communication: Communication between alliance members is key to keeping the alliance working cohesively; sharing resources from meetings but also updates from other work relevant to tobacco control between meetings is useful. Publicising alliance activity within councils and partner organisations is a good way to engage senior leadership and ensure they see tobacco control as a priority area and the alliance as active and effective.

Public communication: Understand your local communications, what you have and what you have access to. Use these tools and your partners to help communicate effectively with members of the public e.g. newsletters, social media (Twitter, Facebook). This can be especially important on issues such as illicit tobacco or the introduction of new smokefree spaces.

Media and PR: Media hooks such as the PHE Stoptober campaign provide key set piece opportunities for engagement and activity involving all partners. These campaigns provide further opportunity for collaboration with NHS, STP/ICS communications teams and ensure that they’re aware of local priorities for tobacco control. If partners comms teams are engaged in these campaigns, they’re more likely to publicise and engage with further tobacco control activity.

Shout about successes! These can be specific successes for the alliance or broader local successes such as declines in prevalence. This is important for highlighting the importance of local tobacco control activity and is a good way to engage local leaders.

Tap into your partners' networks. Alliance partners such as police forces often have large followings among members of the public and can be a great way of getting your message out. Housing providers also have direct routes into the communities and homes you need to reach.

Develop an alliance brand. Colour schemes, logos, strap lines, means that public and professionals can recognise what this is about. Links to strategy and vision and tying this in. For example, Barnsley uses a ‘Making Smoking History’ message and brand, while seven north east localities share the Fresh Smokefree North East branding.

Tobacco control delivered on regional footprints is evidence based and effective. Pooling budgets to fund public education campaigns can deliver better value for money and reach a greater audience than trying to deliver these campaigns in individual local authorities.

West Yorkshire collaborates on illicit tobacco work. They’ve effectively coordinated activity to run the Keep it Out campaign, reducing demand, increasing and sharing intelligence as well as best practice approaches to enforcement.

The regional tobacco control programme Fresh, in the north east, oversaw a media campaign on the 16 cancers caused by smoking in February 2016, reaching approximately 333,000 people via TV, radio, print and online. 90% of total campaign recall came from TV advertising, compared to 4% on Facebook and 1% online, despite relatively high online budgets. Of those who saw the campaign:

• 16% (around 55,300 people) cut down on their smoking;
• 4% (around 28,000 people) made a quit attempt;
• 4% switched to electronic cigarettes.

The 16 Cancers health harms campaign was run again in June 2019, across the North of England. This was funded by the NHS North of England Cancer Alliances as a way to support cancer prevention.

The main campaign channel was regional ITV advertising encouraging smokers to visit the Quit 16 website for tips to quit, contact details for local stop smoking services and videos of real people’s stories. Additional digital advertising was funded by PHE.

Partners were encouraged to support and uplift the campaign to maximise awareness. This was co-ordinated by NHS England. A communications tool kit developed by Fresh and NHS England was shared widely with NHS Trusts, CCGs, PHE, cancer alliances, local authorities and other relevant partners in the North of England. This was an effective collaboration at scale.

This illustrates the additional value that can come from pooling budgets and delivering media work on larger footprints.

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