You Never Know

Case Study: You Never Know

Fentanyl Awareness, Public Health Campaign

Category: Strategic Story, Creative Production, Experience Design

Capabilities Employed: Strategy Development, Brand Development, Social Media Strategy, Streaming & Social Media Advertising, Script Writing, Video Production, Animation Design, Graphic Design, Web Design & Build

Client Intro

You Never Know is a fentanyl awareness and harm prevention campaign to encourage young people to think twice before taking a pill not prescribed to them by a medical professional, filled at a licensed pharmacy and taken as directed.

Idea Summary

Fentanyl has been called the “deadliest drug threat” the U.S. has ever faced, with its impact being felt in communities across the nation. To address a gap in fentanyl education and combat rising rates of accidental and intentional fentanyl use among young people in Johnson County, Kansas, Overflow partnered with Johnson County Mental Health Center, Johnson County Prevention and Recovery Coalition and The Cooper Davis Memorial Foundation (Keepin’ Clean for Coop) to create the You Never Know campaign. At a time when Kansas led the nation in the rate of opioid-related deaths among 15-19-year-olds, the campaign employed evidence-backed and positive social norm messaging to raise awareness about the dangers of illegally made fentanyl, particularly in counterfeit pills that are often sold through social media, friends and other illicit sources.

Our Work

Alarmingly, many deaths by fentanyl are unintentional – some young people who have died from it didn’t even know they were taking it, since fentanyl is used in fake pills disguised as other medications. With this in mind, “You Never Know” was chosen as the campaign concept to plant a seed of doubt that a pill may look real, but you never know. A friend might say it’s safe, but you never know. A source online might seem trustworthy, but you never know.

We couldn’t create a campaign intended to reach Generation Z without including them in the design, branding and concept creation. Surveys and focus groups of local young people, plus audience mapping to identify the campaign’s key audiences, resulted in a youthful, creative design and content that leans into peer-to-peer voice with scroll-stopping visuals and a “gamified” approach to content when possible.

With substance use prevention messaging, the words we use matter. We reinforced positive social norms, an evidence-backed approach to substance use prevention messaging, alongside messages about the real dangers of accidental or intentional fentanyl use, plus harm prevention strategies.

To reach young people, we needed to bring the message to them. Research determined that TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, plus streaming services like Hulu, remain the most widely used online platforms among Gen Z. A detailed paid ad strategy was deployed on each of these platforms to reach various subsets of our Gen Z audience, based on keyword searches, online behaviors and interests. The goal was to drive them to learn more and connect to community resources by clicking to visit youneverknowjoco.org 

The campaign included 11 scripted videos voiced by young people. In addition to paid ad placements, an organic strategy was deployed on social media, intended to increase message reinforcement and awareness for adults of influence, but also applicable to Gen Z. Billboards were designed and strategically placed in high-traffic areas to reach a broader community audience. Print materials, including posters, flyers and stickers, were also created for distribution in schools, at events and in community spaces.  

From March-December 2024, ads across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Hulu generated 632K video views at 100% completion, 23K clicks to the campaign microsite, and 9.4M impressions (the number of times ads were on screen, not to be confused with views). Since ads were limited to run only to our identified age group (13-24) and only in Kansas, we have a high level of confidence these numbers represent real, local young people who have heard these critical messages and taken action to learn more. 

The You Never Know campaign was nominated for a 2024 Mid-America EMMY® Award in the Public Service Announcement category. The campaign also won a Nonprofit Connect Gold Philly Award in the Collaborative Campaign category.

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