Internet
YDOUTHINK.COM
Originally launched in 2002, ydouthink.com,
the youth-oriented Web site of the VTSF’s ydouthink
campaign, is designed to accurately depict the ever-changing interests
and lifestyles of tweens and teens in Virginia. Users are
able to anonymously comment anywhere on the site, creating an
extremely interactive environment. Tobacco information is interlaced
subtly, making it a part of the culture rather than the only purpose
of the site.
Web site and online activity stats through January 1, 2007
- More than 1 million site visits (15,000 to 20,000 per month)
- More than 200,000,000 total impressions
- More than 150,000 total Virginia visitors to ydouthink.com
Awards and Recognition for ydouthink.com
- Received Best in Show in the Charitable Organizations/Non-Profit
category at the 2007 W³
Awards in Los Angeles. Ydouthink.com received one of only
31 Best in Show awards chosen from 2,700 submitted entries.
Other winners in this international Web design competition included
sites created for GEICO, Gucci and UPS.
- Named Adobe
Site of the Day on Nov. 7, 2007. Past winners include Levi
Strauss & Co., Honda, CNN, Lexus and Nike.
- Awarded the Gold Cannonball and “Best in Show - Interactive”
at The
Richmond Show 2005
- Won the Bronze Lion at the International
Advertising Festival in Cannes, France, in June 2002 in
the Festival’s Cyber Lion’s nonprofit category,
which honors excellence in online marketing communications
- Named by AOL as its “Cool Site of the Day”in May
2002
YSTREET.ORG
In 2004, Y St. (Street) was launched in Virginia to recruit teen
volunteers for ydouthink, the VTSF’s tobacco-use prevention
campaign, which is focused on 10- to 17-year-olds in Virginia.
Through street marketing, Y St. has overcome the challenges of
declining participation between trainings, which is a problem
faced by many other youth-based anti-tobacco-use programs. Y St.
focuses on an integrated social marketing approach by not only
training youth, but also creating a system for sustained youth
involvement. In Y St.'s first 18 months, teens volunteered 1,667
times throughout Virginia, resulting in more than 25,000 youth-to-youth
interactions. After the most recent rounds of Y St. Trainings,
there are now more than 1,700 youth statewide who champion the
ydouthink tobacco-use prevention movement, delivering its message
to middle school youth across Virginia.
VEEAY.COM
In spring 2007, VTSF’s marketing campaign launched an innovative
initiative for reaching the youth of Virginia in the place where
they are spending more and more of their time: social networking
sites. Accordingly, VTSF developed its own social networking system:
veeay.com.
Designed specifically for 10- to 15-year-olds in Virginia, the invitation-only site
allows a tween to talk to friends from their school online. Veeay
(pronounced by simply saying the two letters used in the abbreviation
of Virginia: VA) can boast that it contains more safety protocols
than other social networks, yet youth can still participate in
the activities they love on other networking sites. The most important
feature of Veeay's online culture, however, is that it creates
a "captive audience" for the marketing campaign’s
tobacco-prevention message.
