The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is planning an online
component for its four-year, $1 billion campaign across all media to get its
anti-drug message across.
Only a small fraction of the budget is expected to go toward the Internet
during the course of the program, according to an Adweek report.. However, the
agency plans to spend $3 million in online advertising through the 12-month
period ending in July. Specifics of the online campaign have yet to be
determined.
To flesh out its online strategy, the agency awarded a $9.4 million contract
to the Washington office of public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard. The firm,
which has been hired to manage both the Internet plan and other duties, is
expected to develop an online
business plan, along with an integrated media plan, within the next month,
John Hale, ONDCP deputy campaign director, told Adweek.
So far, ONDCP has been rolling out online banner creative, running a total of
21 banners on approximately 125 sites, including Yahoo!,
Netscape’s NetCenter
and Excite, with banner buys linked to keyword searches
such as “heroin” and methamphetamine”; site networks such as Warner
Bros. and CNN; community sites
including Geocities, Tripod
and theglobe.com; and youth-targeted sites discover.com
and Yahoo!’s Yahooligans.
Some of the ad banners are linked to a Web site–projectknow.com–where visitors can
get more information about how to prevent drug use. Others click through to
the parenting section of the Web site of the Partnership for a Drug Free America.
