The Partnership for a Drug Free America is taking its message mobile in order to reach parents of teens and tweens.

With SmartReply's multimillion unit SMS text messaging inventory and VeraSprite's custom audio visual messages, the Partnership's "Time To Talk" campaign aims to get tips, tools and advice to parents about their children and drug usage. Parents can also sign-up to receive monthly news via email.

"Our goal is to connect and work with parents to prevent and get help for teen drug and alcohol abuse," said Hilary Baris, digital media and marketing director at the Partnership, New York. "With the U.S. consumer use of text messaging exploding we choose mobile as a complement to our existing advertising because it provides fast, immediate reach and impact."

The Partnership is a nonprofit organization with 22 years of experience in educating kids, teens, parents and communities about alcohol and drug abuse and until recently stayed within traditional media. The organization has built a digital presence through pro-bono online banner advertising while developing their sites, http://www.drugfree.org and http://www.timetotalk.org.

In March, The Partnership launched its first mobile public service campaign to expand the reach of its educational messages about the risks of drugs and alcohol, creating new opportunities to reach teens and parents with important health information.

The March campaign targeted parents interested in learning how to start and maintain conversations with their kids about drugs and alcohol, and teens who may be experimenting or using. The Partnership ran banner ads on mobile Web sites that drive clickers to a landing page where parents can sign up to access tips, tools and advice from the Partnership's "Time to Talk" program (see story).

Its new deal with SmartReply and VeraSprite takes the digital aspect of its campaign into the mobile sector.

"Here's how it works: Mobile phone users who opt-in to receive content -- could be news alerts, weather alerts, entering a contest, etcetera -- on their phones will find a ?sponsor' link at the bottom of their message," Ms. Baris said. "For this campaign, the ?sponsor' message is a pro-bono Partnership message, and it's an opportunity to ?reply via SMS - TALKNOW to learn how to talk to kids about drugs.'"

After replying, the mobile user is given three options: download a 60-second video of a parent talking about their kids, a link directly to http://TimeToTalk.org, or users can text back the keyword TIP and get a advice about talking to their kids about drugs and alcohol.

"The video download and option to have a tip sent by text also helps keep an issue that can be anxiety producing -- talking about drugs and alcohol -- a bit lighter and friendlier, which we're hoping will make parents more receptive and relaxed when it comes to having the conversation," Ms. Baris said.

By adding a mobile component to its Time To Talk campaign, the Partnership hopes to reach more parents and children.

"The campaign's message for parents is that talking to your kids about drugs and alcohol isn't as hard as you might think," Ms. Baris said. "It's not about having one big conversation, it's about having frequent little discussions that, over your kid's life, can have a tremendous impact on their choices. That's the purpose of the Partnership's Time To Talk program -- to help parents learn what to say and when to say it."