Today the world’s biggest and most successful campaign targeting the UK’s 7m smokers to help them quit through vaping launches for its fifth year.
VApril 2022, the annual awareness campaign from the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) which educates smokers on everything they need to know about vaping so they can make informed decisions about whether it is the right quit route for them, opened with a Vaping Masterclass session with experts from the vaping industry, stop smoking services and healthcare.
Now back to normal after two years being an online-only campaign, the month-long VApril 2022 initiative, now recognised internationally, will see specialist vape businesses up and down the country, together with vaping trade associations around the world, get behind it.
Today in the UK there are some 3m+ vapers who were former smokers. According to a survey of nearly 2,000 adults, 72% of smokers who were aware of VApril said that the campaign had influenced them to make the switch to vaping.
Smokers can visit a special campaign VApril website, www.vapril.org, which provides a guide, the “Make the Switch”, to help them make a successful switch to vape products and, in doing so, break their smoking habits which many will have had for many years.
For the first time this year the UKVIA is running a promotional campaign on social media including an animated five step guide to transitioning successfully from smoking to vaping; a video featuring the life changing experience of a former smoker turned vaper and a video of Dr Anita Sharma addressing common concerns of smokers who are considering switching to vaping to help them quit their smoking habits.
The month will also see publication of research on the level and quality of advice that is being provided to adult smokers when considering a switch to vaping.
Most crucially, throughout VApril, smokers can visit participating vape retail outlets all over the UK in order to benefit from expert in store advice on the best ways to quit smoking through vaping.
Says John Dunne, Director General of the UKVIA: “We know from Public Health England that vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking according, and the last 18 months has seen a massive groundswell of support from the medical and political worlds underlining how vital vaping is towards helping people to quit smoking and the overall health of the nation.”
Studies show that in every region of the country quit rates among adult smokers were found to be higher with the use of vaping than other products, ranging from 49% success in the South West to 78% in Yorkshire and the Humber.
John continued: “We are steadfast and determined in our mission and resolve to give smokers a real choice underpinned by VApril 2022 and the huge support we receive from vape retail stores and other businesses across the UK as well as vape associations across the world.”
The VApril social media campaign will focus on the benefits of smokers seeking specialist advice when looking to quit through vaping. The campaign will include smokers turned vapers talking about the criticality of expert advice when making the switch, a five-step guide to successfully quitting conventional cigarettes through transitioning to vaping and experts putting the record straight on common concerns from smoking about vaping caused by the circulation of misinformation.
Doug Mutter is a director at VPZ, the UK’s largest independent chain of vape shops and a member of the UKVIA. He said: “For well over a decade now vaping has helped hundreds of thousands of adult smokers to quit for good and the evidence supporting its use is mounting all the time.
“What’s really remarkable is that the private sector has been the main advocated for this in the shape of the many specialist vape businesses who have offered expert guidance and support to help smokers to find the best way to give up cigarettes through vaping.
“That’s what makes VApril so vital; it is the vaping industry’s flagship opportunity to come together and demonstrate our unity and togetherness when it comes to vaping advocacy.”
To download all the VApril campaign assets just go to www.vapril.org or download direct from https://mailchi.mp/0a8a2b67de0d/vapril2022
ENDS