Drug addiction impacts an entire city – from increasing crime and health problems to ruining lives and devastating families. But for young people in Cape Town there is hope: The City of Cape Town’s (CoCT’s) highly successful free rehabilitation programme. The CoCT had one great challenge, however: its programme severely lacked awareness.
The Solution
Someone’s story was told through an integrated, multi-channel approach to ensure maximum reach, engagement and impact: Facebook: A dedicated Facebook page to share Someone’s personal recovery process. The true story of a successfully recovered addict was recreated using actors to protect the identities of everyone involved. The back-story was told by pre-populating his timeline with five years worth of posts from his 15th birthday to finishing high school and moving into digs with a drug dealer – where he became an addict. The live portion started on his first day of rehab and told the story of the day-by-day reality of the recovery process, starting with a phone call to the helpline, to the first hard days, to the first faint glimmers of hope and finally leaving the first stage of the programme clean and hopeful for the future. The story unfolded through a series of, at times, painfully honest posts, as though to follow a close friend sharing their personal journey. Media spend ensured maximum reach for key pieces of content. YouTube: Six video diaries. Raw, face-to-camera approach added deeply personal grit. Media spend behind the videos ensured target audience exposure to the content while searching and watching other videos. Tumblr: 11 longer blog-style posts. Earned media relations: Proactive and highly targeted earned media and blogger relations further amplified the campaign and highlighted critical education messages while directing audiences to online campaign channels. Interviews across key broadcast, print and online media channels with Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille, a counsellor and brave young female teen who had successfully recovered through the City-run programme. Paid media relations: Live Magazine, MiCampus and 2OceansVibe. Influencer engagement (earned): 13 influencers.