On Social Marketing and Social Change

A City is Full of Stories for Walking

Over dinner in Toronto during a social marketing and social media workshop convened by the Canadian Health Network, the topic turned to mobile thoughts. And I learned about an application of mobile technologies that addresses my regular concern about physical activity advocates recommending 30 minutes of aimless wandering.

[murmur] is an archival audio project that collects and curates stories set in specific Toronto locations, told by Torontonians themselves. At each of these locations, a [murmur] sign with a telephone number and location code marks where stories are available. By using a mobile phone, users are able to listen to the story of that place while engaging in the physical experience of being there. Some stories suggest that the listener walk around, following a certain path through a place, while others allow a person to wander with both their feet and their gaze.

Toronto has three [murmur] trails, with others established in Montreal, San Jose (California), Vancouver and the latest addition just launched in Leith, Scotland. As one of our group commented, "It's like being in a museum with the head phones on - except it's our own backyard."

Reminds me of Paths to Health with audio. Our next stop is Vancouver [click on image to enlarge]. Thanx Alison!

 

Messages and Movements

Social marketing programs aimed at reducing the prevalence of obesity face the creative challenge of how to blend messages about nutrition and physical activity AND encourage people to so something AND stay relevant. This promotion tactic for Kellogg's Special K Challenge gets outside the box to address all these points in a very creative way.

via Out to Launch
 

Physical Activity Trends in 2007

The American College of Sports Medicine released a global survey of health and fitness professionals: programs for obese children rank #1. From the release -

Program development to reduce obesity among children was the number-one trend identified in the survey. Health and fitness professionals predict schools are unlikely to increase time devoted to physical education or nutrition education, and providing physical activity for kids may fall in the hands of the health/fitness industry along with fitness professionals.

Other top ten trends include more programs tailored for older adults, functional fitness training and more focus on the education and accreditation of health and fitness professionals.

via The Morning Cup

mChange for Physical Activity

You can now start using your cell phone to monitor and enhance your physical activity - and on some of them, listen to your favorites tunes at the same time.

A wireless training resource, Runner's World RunTracker enables runners to track and store their workouts -- including mileage, split times, caloric burn, elevation changes and other information -- as well as to share running route information from cities around the country, all with the push of a button on their wireless phones.

In previous posts I have talked about the emerging world of mChange technologies and highlighted a report on using mobile technologies for obesity management and increasing levels of physical activity. Though the marketers have missed the bigger market by positioning this to more elite exercisers (who else records split times and elevations?), I'm sure there will soon be others that will move to fill in the holes. And the idea of being able to pull up maps for walking, whether in another city or your own neighborhood is a great feature.

via SmartMobs

Technorati Tags: Exercise, Physical Activity, mChange, Mobile Technology, Monitoring, RunTracker

From Golfing to Trail Running

Chalk it up to the boomer demographic, the call of nature and just having fun, trail running is one of the bigger physical activity trends happening right now. At least the National Association of Home Builders thinks so:

Trails are the No. 1 amenity potential homeowners cite when asked what they would like to see in a new community, ahead of public parks and outdoor pools, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Trails were cited by 57 percent of prospective buyers in a 2004 survey by the association. “All of the evidence we have suggests that demand for trails is increasing,” said Gopal Ahluwalia, the vice president for research at the builders’ group. [NY Times]

To paraphrase Sutton's Law, when designing environments and physical activity programs in the suburbs, go where the trails are!

Technorati Tags: Built Environment, Physical Activity, Trail Running

BC Walks by Social Marketing

An article in the latest issue of Preventing Chronic Diseases describes the replication of the Wheeling Walks program. From the abstract:

METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used to determine whether the results of a previous communitywide physical activity social marketing campaign conducted in Wheeling, WVa (population, 31,420) could be replicated in the larger community of Broome County, New York (population, 200,536)... Promotion activities included paid advertising, media relations, and community health activities. Impact was determined by preintervention and postintervention random-digit-dial cohort telephone surveys in intervention and comparison counties... RESULTS: The paid advertising included 4835 television and 3245 radio gross rating points and 10 quarter-page newspaper advertisements. News media relations resulted in 28 television news stories, 5 radio stories, 10 newspaper stories, and 125 television news promotions. Exposure to the campaign was reported by 78% of Broome County survey respondents. Sixteen percent of Broome County participants changed from nonactive to active walkers; 11% changed from nonactive to active walkers in the comparison county (adjusted odds ratio, 1.71; 95% confidence interval, 0.99-2.95). Forty-seven percent of Broome County respondents reported any increase in total weekly walking time, compared with 36% for the comparison county (adjusted odds ratio, 1.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-2.44). CONCLUSION: The BC Walks campaign replicated the earlier Wheeling Walks initiative, although increases in walking were smaller in the BC Walks campaign.

Comment: This is one of those examples where the authors label the intervention as a social marketing one. As much as some people practice (and even preach) to the contrary, a series of advertisements and earned media promotions do not constitute a social marketing program. While abstracts are a limiting factor for fully describing programs, authors should keep in mind that in the digital world their abstracts are likely to be the most frequently read part of the article. If you miss putting all 4Ps in the Methods or program description, well...

Unfortunately, in the full report the rest of the intervention is described as: 'Community health activities were designed to provide social networks, to offer social support, and to reinforce the campaign message.' Still looking for those other Ps. And peer reviewed too!

Technorati Tags: Community Intervention, Health Communication, Physical Activity, Social Marketing