The residents of a small borough in Stockport are the inspiration behind The Hub’s most ambitious social marketing campaign to date.

In response to research showing that over 50% of adults in Brinnington smoke - over twice the national average figures of 24% - Stockport PCT have commissioned The Hub to work with the National Social Marketing Centre on this pilot study to develop a campaign encouraging the entire community to ‘lose the fags’.

The campaign has been designed to establish giving up smoking as a community issue - rather than an individual one - in order to leverage Brinnington's strong sense of community as a motivating factor. Using images, language and tone-of-voice characteristic of the area, it is hoped that the residents will take ownership of the issue and rally together to make the campaign work.

"It's been really interesting to work on such a highly targeted campaign, said Steven Johnson, Creative Director at The Hub. "We spent a considerable amount of time in Brinnington, talking to the locals and getting a flavour for the area. This, coupled with evaluating the wealth of qualitative and quantitative insight gathered from focus groups run by the National Social Marketing Centre enabled us to rebrand smoking behaviour in the area.”

"It became clear quite early on in the research process that the people of Brinnington aren't the type to be told what to do. By using real Brinnington residents as figureheads for the campaign and a tone of voice drawn from our conversations with locals, we have developed an approach that puts the audience in the driving seat - empowering them to make the decisions for themselves, rather than telling them what to do."

The campaign incorporates highly targeted interventions such as dedicated text and phone line manned by ex-smoking, trained resident, smoking support groups run by Brinnington residents and local people being trained to offer smoking cessation support and advice, with a creative concept that was pre-tested with residents. Creative includes posters, flyers, exhibition material and branded merchandise to be distributed just within the two-mile radius that defines Brinnington. Working with an emphatic 'Lose the Fags' brand across all the material the poster campaign features images of Brinnington residents in a smoking pose, but without the cigarette. The headline "Give smoking the two fingers" brings an alternative meaning to the empty hand gesture and introduces plays on the local sense of humour.