One of the most unusual—and ultimately most effective—aspects of the TPPI was the level of resources devoted to strategic communications. More than $16 million went to the Public Media Center and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for a multiphase media campaign throughout the lifespan of the TPPI. While that may sound like a lot of money, it’s a pittance when compared with the sums spent on political advertising or the typical commercial advertising budget. In essence, it provided the resources for a public affairs campaign targeted at decision makers rather than a broader social marketing effort aimed at teens.

Ogilvy was the primary Grantee for the public education work, and its “Get Real About Teen Pregnancy” campaign focused on three core messages. The campaign sought to increase the prevalence of comprehensive sex education, to promote teen access to contraception, and to focus policies and program resources on promoting healthy adolescent sexuality. It was an action-oriented campaign. In each case, it aimed to communicate not only what the audience should know about the issue, but also what they could do.

One of the keys to the campaign’s success was an investment in research. It utilized data from market research, surveys, focus groups and community roundtables. Although each data collection effort was time-consuming, taking as much as six months to complete, having fresh research as the “hook” was very effective in attracting widespread media coverage. Data collected for the Initiative on those regions of the state where teen pregnancy rates were the highest (dubbed the “hot spots”) also helped the campaign to dedicate its limited resources to specific media markets.

Another important success factor was Ogilvy’s conscious effort to bring a multicultural perspective to bear on all aspects of the campaign. At the outset, it had assembled a team of collaborators with expertise in specific ethnic media, something quite unusual for the time. All were clear from the beginning that a successful campaign on teen pregnancy would have to speak to multiple cultural audiences and that simple translation of the message into multiple languages would not be effective. Given the sensitive nature of many of the messages, the public education team made a special effort to ensure that it was capturing the appropriate cultural nuances for each audience. To do so, it turned to the other Grantees for help, specifically the Community Action Programs. In turn, Ogilvy also provided technical assistance to the local programs on their media outreach and communications efforts.

Ogilvy’s surveys and focus groups validated the importance of engaging adults and community involvement in building an environment supportive of access to contraception and promotion of healthy adolescent sexuality. The information collected through polling, focus groups, etc., provided a very effective counter to highly vocal opponents, who were revealed to represent a minority viewpoint in the most affected communities. They were not speaking for the majority of kids, parents or the public.

The state of California was also sponsoring a media campaign on teen pregnancy in the early years of the TPPI, with a much larger budget, but it was quite limited in the messages it could convey. The “Get Real” campaign was credited by observers (including state officials) with having the freedom and courage to simultaneously tackle tougher messages. There was a good deal of backstage conversation between the two campaigns, and the “Get Real” campaign was able to say things that the state wasn’t able to say in a complementary fashion that helped increase the impact of both campaigns. Later, when the state’s funding ended, the “Get Real” campaign was able to continue to keep the issue of teen pregnancy prevention before decision makers.

The media campaign also had a galvanizing effect on others directly involved in the TPPI. They were heartened by the fact that the campaign was putting out messages about teen pregnancy that no one else was using. Identification with the campaign gained them a lot of credibility in their communities, since it conveyed to parents that they were genuinely concerned about their kids’ well-being.

Something unanticipated at the beginning of the Initiative was the degree to which an online presence would be an important tool for the “Get Real” campaign. Originally, not much thought was given to a website, for example, but it definitely evolved into an essential element of the campaign. It was one of the first of its kind, and it had a password-protected section for TPPI participants and also provided open access to downloadable copies of all of the materials produced for the campaign. The site continues to be used as a resource by organizations working on teen pregnancy prevention in California and around the country.