This is your phone on drugs: Partnership for a Drug-Free America starts using mobile marketing

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America today announced it’s very first mobile public service campaign. The initiative is targeted at both parents and children, and was created with mobile ad network Ringleader Digital and digital marketing experts Contagious.

This campaign has two branches. The first branch advises parents on how to best converse with their children about drugs and alcohol. The second is aimed at teens. Called “Check Yourself”, it tries to get teens to look at their relationship with drugs and alcohol.

The campaign attracts users to it’s WAP site by placing clickable banner ads on targeted mobile Internet sites. From the site, parents can access info and advice from the Partnership’s Time To Talk program. Teens who access the “Check Yourself” service will have the option of texting the site to a friend.

From the release:

“Digital media has proven to be one of the most exciting and effective ways to get the Partnership’s messages out to this generation of parents and teens,” said Hilary Baris, Digital Media and Marketing Director at the Partnership. “We’re very grateful to our mobile partners for their passion, generosity and commitment to utilizing the power of mobile marketing to help keep families and kids healthy and drug-free.”

“The work being done by The Partnership is something that we are very much supporters of and happy to help get the message out,” said Tim Solt, SVP of Sales and Business Development of go2 Media. “With this campaign we were able to provide specific inventory in our Local Events, Family & Kids and Sporting News content sections that appropriately targeted the audience for this campaign.”

“The Partnership has built the longest-running public service campaign in history and we are excited to participate in its first ever mobile advertising campaign,” said Bob Walczak, CEO of Ringleader Digital. “By working with some of our publisher Web sites we were able to target the two audiences of value to the Partnership – parents and teens and secure well over 1 million impressions.”

What we think?

It pains me to see campaigns like this. On the one hand it’s great to see more and more people entering the mobile marketing space in order to get their message out there. The more people who get involved, the better. On the other hand, it’s a bit ham-fisted. A WAP site just isn’t going to attract that much attention if it’s only advertising channel is mobile banner ads. Mobile Internet sites, especially public service campaigns, need to be marketed more creatively and more intelligently than that to get noticed.