Background: The need for a new supportive and empathetic smoking cessation media campaign that would appeal to the whole population, with a focus on Mâori was identified. The aim of the campaign is to motivate smokers aged 25-44 to think about and take action to quit smoking and to encourage relapsed smokers to make another quit attempt.

Method: Four concepts were tested with the target audience. One concept, Video Diaries, was especially well received because of its persuasiveness, compelling approach, and multiple themes. Smokers were also asked about their motivations and barriers to quitting smoking, which provided valuable additional information for developing the campaign.

Results: Video Diaries was developed as the new campaign. Findings from the concept testing and research fed into developing three sets of television commercials, each contains nine episodes following a person on their quitting journey. Real smokers rather than actors were filmed as they quit smoking over a series of weeks, creating challenges for the production team. Response to the campaign through calls to the Quitline has been positive.

Conclusions: The first two stories in the new campaign appear to appeal to smokers and have generated a high number of callers to the Quitline. Additional pre-testing has been undertaken so that additional stories in the series can be edited to maintain relevance for the target audience.

Implications: The Video Diaries campaign helps to create a supportive quitting environment because it is relevant, shows people in real quitting situations, and depicts relapse, all of which help to normalise the quitting process.