Marketing Update

TELUS wins "Who’s Who in Workplace Health" award for STOMP

Montreal, PQ, November 11, 2009 – Encouraging results from TELUS’ Health and Wellness smoking cessation coaching service, STOMP, have resulted in TELUS winning a Who’s Who in Workplace Health award from Working Well Magazine. The Who’s Who in Workplace Health awards are designed to honour individuals and organizations that have demonstrated leadership and innovation in workplace health. The awards were presented at a recent Gala event in Toronto.

Currently being piloted with TELUS employees, STOMP (STop smoking Over Mobile Phones) was originally developed and clinically validated by the University of Auckland in New Zealand. It is a behavior-based coaching program that offers 24/7 support with daily motivation tips along with automatic and individually prompted text messages. Throughout STOMP’s quitting process, which typically averages six months, 140 character texts are sent to participants at specifically prescribed intervals with messages of encouragement. Additional messages of support can be prompted at any time by the participant.

“We’re extremely proud to have won this award and to be recognized for our leadership to improve health and wellness,” explained Zak Bhamani, Director of Consumer Health at TELUS Health Solutions. “To generate strong interest and participation across the organization we used a variety of internal communications tools including a promotional video, a blog and incorporated the service into the TELUS Healthy Living programs initiatives.”

The solution is being provided free of charge to all TELUS team members and, with the current rate of success, TELUS is looking at making the program a permanent part of its health and wellness offering for team members.

At the half-way mark (July, 2009), the participant dropout rate was a low 35% and the sustained quit rate was 17.4% - a tremendous achievement when compared to the rate of individuals who try quitting on their own without support which comes in at a 3% success rate.

According to Statistics Canada, 17% of Canadians, or 6 million people, are smokers. The prevalence of smoking is even higher in the working population with over 20% of Canadians between ages 20-54 reporting that they are a daily smoker.

STOMP was developed by HSAGlobal based in Auckland, New Zealand and is distributed in Canada by TELUS Health Solutions.

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