Increasing referrals through face-to-face marketing
Jane Oliver, Health Improvement Programme Manager, NHS Health Scotland, UK

Abstract
NHS Health Scotland manages the national communications campaign to promote smoking cessation services in Scotland. The direct response nature of the TV element of the campaign enables the capture of postcode data for analysis of target groups reached.

Postcode analysis identified key groups of smokers who were not responding to the TV campaign. By linking this data with evidence from ‘A Tobacco Atlas of Scotland’ it was possible to identify key areas of Scotland for more targeted campaign work.

In 2008, NHS Health Scotland launched its first Stop Smoking Roadshow, which took place across 24 locations in Scotland and provided nearly 800 referrals to local stop smoking services.

In 2009, the road shows were extended to cover every NHS Board area in Scotland, covering 36 locations and providing 1,455 referrals to services.

The strength of the road shows lay in bringing together a professional face-to-face marketing agency with staff from each area’s local stop smoking services. This combination of professional public engagement expertise with knowledge and skills in smoking cessation and local services proved to be highly effective in generating referrals. In some areas, smokers could sign up at the road show for a local cessation service.