On Social Marketing and Social Change

Social Marketing in the News

Flinders St East Safety Survey

Flinders St East [Townsville, Australia] will come under scrutiny of a safety audit when a group of university students step out to ask clubbers how safe they feel when they are in the CBD. The nightclub strip has had a history of violence, drunkeness and anti-social behaviour which has prompted a 3am lockout.… She said the audit, entitled Safety in Venues, Perception Versus Reality would target men and women and allow for a social marketing project to be developed.

Jamie Oliver in Talks Over Campaign for Family Meals

The Department of Health is negotiating with Sainsbury's about a joint campaign, to be fronted by the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, to encourage families to make time to eat together more often as a key means of improving the nation's diet...

Some public health campaigners may question whether the health department is allowing its messages to be hijacked by commercial interests. But Jeff French, co-author of yesterday's report on use of social marketing techniques in public health work, said: "They can be part of the problem, but there is no solution that doesn't involve them ... in terms of reach."

Mozambique: Millennium Goals 'A Matter of Life Or Death' 

Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), declared in Maputo on Tuesday that, for poor countries such as Mozambique, achieving the MDGs "is matter of life or death, not just of economics"…

Sachs was convinced that countries such as Mozambique, with a reasonable level of governance, and with a solid policy framework in place, could achieve the MDGs. But that would require investment in agriculture, which is where most of the poor work…

But he inveighed against the policy of trying to sell bed nets. "You can't expect people who have no money to buy bed nets!", he exclaimed. "You have to give the nets away, not sell them. Enough of social marketing!" Bed nets were as crucial to child health as vaccination, "and imagine trying to sell a measles vaccine, instead of giving it away". [See also here and here.]

An Iron Fist Joins the Malaria Wars

…Dr. Kochi, who in the past ran the agency's Stop TB initiative, has never been known for his diplomatic skills. A 57-year-old graduate of Japanese medical schools and the Harvard School of Public Health, he ruled the Stop TB campaign with an iron fist, colleagues say, and by his own admission, so alienated the Rockefeller Foundation and other partners that he was ultimately forced out of the job.

But even his critics admit that he was a decisive strategist and that the tuberculosis campaign was one of most effective the W.H.O. has run…

For example, he wants to standardize mosquito nets so that, instead of a welter of competing styles that must be home-dunked in pesticide, a few makers of factory-coated nets, which kill insects for years longer, are left to compete on price. He dismisses "social marketing," in which nets are branded and sold cheaply instead of being given away, as with an early Bush administration policy that flopped. And, despite the objections of environmentalists, he wants DDT sprayed inside huts to kill mosquitoes where they rest on walls as they wait for dark.

NCC Reports on the Cost of Health

A National Consumer Council (NCC) report on UK health is being seen as "a blueprint for how social marketing can dramatically improve the impact of government health campaigns", according to its author.

Dr Jeff French, who is also director of the NCC's National Social Marketing Centre, says that his report aims to build "positive relationships" between the government and the health sector "to deliver improvements"…

NCC chief executive, Ed Mayo, said: "The NHS has never invested in a marketing approach to public health and yet evidence from countries such as Canada and Australia is that it works well.

"We estimate that a five per cent increase in healthy behaviour could save the NHS and care services close to £1 billion, which is equivalent to the projected NHS deficit."

Gay Community, Surgeon General Report on Secondhand Smoke

The Surgeon General's report indicates that nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. The report finds that even brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause immediate harm and that the only way to protect nonsmokers from the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking indoors.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center's SmokeFree Homes Campaign collected the first ever data on environmental smoke in the homes of LGBT adults. Survey data showed that 45 percent of respondents allow smoking in their homes and that less than half of these perceived environmental smoke in the home as a serious health risk, with the majority perceiving environmental smoke as a moderate, minor or negligible health risk.

These results indicate that while a majority of LGBT persons do not permit smoking within their homes, social marketing campaigns are needed to educate LGBT smokers and individuals living with smokers about the serious health and safety risks posed by environmental cigarette smoke within the home.

Behaviour Change Still Remote

The Swazi population is knowledgeable of the HIV and AIDS pandemic however, such knowledge has not been translated into behaviour change…

Recognising that the media plays a vital role in influencing beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of individuals, a radio programme has been launched.

Building on the success of the “Indzaba yetfu sonkhe” campaign, “ngoba likusasa ngelami” was a holistic social marketing programme aimed primarily at touching individuals in those areas of their lives that are integral to a value-system and belief set that affects a better life and brighter future… the radio programme contributed in making people talk about HIV and AIDS issues, which is a step towards behaviour change.

Technorati Tags: ETS, Health Communication, Health Education, Health Policy, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, MDGs, Nutrition, Public Safety, Secondhand Smoke

Marketing Malaria Control - Not Nets

One of the more sustained attacks on social marketing over the past year has come from the economist Jeffrey Sachs over the issue of whether to charge people for mosquito netting that is a central element of malaria control efforts in Africa. The use of tangible products and monetary pricing strategies (mosquito netting and condoms being two major product lines with prices that are often heavily subsidized) is one of the differences between many social marketing programs in the international development field and those practiced in many developed countries (where the focus tends to be on behaviors as products for adoption and pricing is construed in less tangible forms - effort, psychological, social and other 'costs' and incentives). Yet, the concern over the tactic of pricing for mosquito nets has been obscuring the larger organizational, financial and marketing problems.

Today's New York Times looks at of how aid money is being spent on malaria control. Here is the breakdown of funds spent by the 'foreign aid industrial complex:'

And the United States Agency for International Development admitted to outraged senators last year that it spent more on high-priced consultants than on life-saving commodities, like mosquito nets that cost $5.75 apiece and last up to five years... Only 1 percent of the agency's 2004 malaria budget went for medicines, 1 percent for insecticides and 6 percent for mosquito nets. The rest was spent on research, education, evaluation, administration and other costs.

The reporting also notes small budgets, 'faulty strategies' and poor management have been significant barriers to reducing the incidence of malaria. In one case, 1.8 million mosquito nets approved for distribution by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis over two years ago have yet to be delivered. It will be interesting to see how members of the 'foreign aid industrial complex' respond to the coverage - or not.

The good news is that there are a number of efforts under way to address the political, economic and procurement (structural) impediments to a more effective fight against malaria, including the too long delayed decision to move to the spraying of mosquito infested areas with DDT. We also suggest that the program planners shift their attention from using social marketing as a tactical device and rhetorical whipping post. Rather, consider adopting a broader marketing orientation across the entire program and don't leave it entirely to the politicians and economists to sort out.

Technorati Tags: Global Fund, Malaria Control, Marketing Orientation, Social Marketing, US AID

Social Marketing Goes National

The English Department of Health today unveiled it strategic approach to apply social marketing throughout the country's health promotion efforts.  From the home page:

On 26 June 2006, the first National Review of Social Marketing for Health in England, 'It's our Health' was launched [summary report - pdf file]. This review was commissioned by the Department of Health as part of its delivery of the Choosing Health White Paper commitments. The report sets out its findings, as well as strategic and operational recommendations on how social marketing can be applied to improve the impact and effectiveness of health promotion in England, at national and local levels. These recommendations will provide a framework for the first National Social Marketing Strategy for Health in England.

The new approach to promote health is a result of three influences.  The first is research demonstrating that current approaches to public health would not achieve the agreed upon targets. It is also believed that the government has to adopt a customer-centered approach and abandon the paternalistic ‘nanny state’ position it has been accused of having for many years. Finally, there is growing awareness of the evidence and experience base of social marketing approaches to improve health (see the reviews at the National Social Marketing Strategy Site).

A small group of us got a sneak peak of the launch at the USF social marketing conference last Friday. Jeff French and John Bromley walked us through the drivers, methodology, process and objectives for the adoption of the social marketing approach throughout the Department of Health – not as ‘another’ approach to health promotion activities, but as the central guiding force in all DH efforts.

The Strategic Aim: Increase the impact and effectiveness of national and local health-related programs and campaigns by ensuring that social marketing principles are adopted and systematically applied.

Strategic Objectives:

• Put the consumer at the center of all health program development and delivery.
• Mobilize available assets and develop a diverse resource base to increase their effectiveness and impact.
• Enhance the leadership, priority-setting and development of expert commissioning roles.
• Build capacity and skills to integrate social marketing within existing intervention methods.
• Reconfigure research and evaluation approaches so that they directly assess movement towards national behavioral goals and better capture lessons learned from interventions.

Jeff and John walked us through a very deliberate and thoughtful process that has unfolded over the past two years. Two noteworthy points were the meeting of the five largest food retailers/producers with the Prime Minister to consider the question ‘How are you going to help us improve people’s health’ (rather than signing 'good intention' documents with a former one) and the finding that exactly 0.02% of the National Health Services research budget was for program evaluation activities to answer the real-world question: What Works? I wonder what the percentage is for the US health research and evaluation budget within the DHHS?

The sense we were left with is that this is a bold initiative that has involved and been embraced at the highest levels of the relevant Cabinet and other government officials. They have also thought about and preemptively addressed efforts to water down the effort through ‘superficial adoption’ practices (adopt the language but not its discipline; only apply it to operational issues and not policy formulation, strategy development and specific behaviorally-focused interventions).

This is a model for systemically improving the nature, delivery and effectiveness of health promotion programs around the world. More information about the process will be appearing in the Fall issue of Social Marketing Quarterly.

Technorati Tags: Health Promotion, National Health Policy, Social Marketing

Social Marketing in the News

Country in Need of ParticipACTION

It was more than 30 years ago that a comparison of physical activity levels between a 60-year-old Swede and a 30-year-old Canadian sparked a national uproar that highlighted low physical activity levels in Canada.

ParticipACTION — the social marketing genius behind this claim — became a household name. ParticipACTION brought attention to the epidemic of physical inactivity in Canada and challenged Canadians to get moving throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s. Using a fun, playful and humorous approach, their social marketing campaigns motivated and supported a generation of Canadians to get physically active…

Next week in Ottawa, sport and recreation ministers from across Canada will gather for our annual meeting. I will be urging the federal government to initiate the relaunch of this effective campaign in partnership with the private sector, provinces and territories.

[Ed Note: More about ParticpACTION at their archive.]

Uganda Targeted for Payback?

Things were going well in the fight against AIDS in Uganda, a country which has dramatically reduced its infection rates by stressing abstinence and monogamy.

But that progress has angered the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, so much so that some family advocates say the group has targeted Uganda for payback.

The Geneva-based group, self-described as a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities, recently investigated misappropriation of Global Fund money by Ugandan government officials. While that investigation has identified corruption, some question why it was launched in the first place…

"What we do know about the Global Fund," Klepacki said, "is it's supporting legalized prostitution, abortion, needle-exchange programs and massive condom social marketing and distribution around the world."

Report: Meth labs, 'Hot' Tests Drop

Wyoming is fighting meth with a number of initiatives:

• The Legislature approved an increase of nearly $4 million over the next two years for the state Division of Criminal Investigation...
• Starting in July, the DCI will receive the bulk of its money from the state's general fund. The department previously relied on federal grants, which were cut suddenly last year by the Bush administration. The DCI budget includes funding for the state's 11 drug task force offices…
• The state also will roll out a new meth awareness campaign this fall, Maki said. The social marketing campaign will focus on prevention, treatment and awareness and largely will be based at the local level.

Oakland Launches New HIV Prevention Campaign

"I Am Worth It" was unveiled last week at a community health fair. The social marketing campaign is the result of a $500,000 grant from the Alameda County Office of AIDS Administration, according to Joe Hawkins, director of administration with the AIDS Project of the East Bay…

Hawkins said APEB held interviews and focus groups with hundreds of individuals to gain insight on how the new prevention campaign might best target the community. A study conducted by Cal State East Bay shows that 46 percent of the people infected with HIV/AIDS in Alameda County are African American men who have sex with men.

"In San Francisco, prevention campaigns are usually very sexually explicit. The information we received from individuals here is that most did not want to go in that direction," said Hawkins. "Our studies showed that most felt our prevention information campaign should be more spiritual, more neutral."

Hawkins said the ads that make up the campaign would be placed on billboards, on the sides of buses, and air on the radio.

New Syphilis Prevention Campaign

The San Francisco Department of Public Health is launching its "Buck Syphilis" campaign, a new social marketing effort to promote syphilis awareness among gay and bisexual men.

After the successful Healthy Penis campaign (that has now moved to Santa Clara County in the South Bay), which led to dramatic increases in screenings and a decline in new syphilis cases, the Buck Syphilis campaign promotes the notion that syphilis testing be viewed as an easy part of general health maintenance.

Technorati Tags: Health Communication, Health Education, HIV/AIDS, Methamphetamine, ParticipACTION, Physical Activity, Social Marketing, Syphilis

USF Social Marketing Conference

Just made it into Clearwater Beach for the Social Marketing and Public Health conference. It will be a pretty busy couple of days with lots of people to catch up, sessions to sit in on, and a few to present as well. Here's the agenda. I will be presenting on 'Social Media and Social Marketing' tomorrow afternoon and will post some notes from that session later.

Are Obesity DTC Ads the Next Big Thing?

Who would have thought last year that DTC ads for prescription sleep aids would be  everywhere?  Well, one who did is now predicting the same things for obesity drugs - Pharma Marketing Blog.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, DTC, Obesity

Social Marketing wiki

The first social marketing wiki has been launched this week by a group of volunteers from the social marketing list serve. It is an open resource for people who want to pass along and exchange ideas, methods, examples and wisdom of introducing and enhancing the knowledge and skills of social marketing among various groups of people.

Stop in and take a look. Contributions of content, encouragement and support will be most appreciated!

Technorati Tags: Social Marketing, wiki

Be Like Reynolds Wrap

Being a social marketer, I have dreamed of having the HUGE media budgets, DAZZLING creative and MASSIVE distribution systems of such brands as Coke, Pepsi and McDonald's. Who wouldn't want their resources and capabilities to contribute to a better world and not just build bigger brands?

The results of the 2006 EquiTrend consumer survey of brand equity among US consumers in Ad Age (free subscription required) remind me that smart, not money, is what builds brands and behaviors among audiences. Brand equity was measured through quality, familiarity and purchase consideration scores.

Reynolds Wrap, with a $7.5 million annual media budget is the #1 consumer brand among over 1,000 tested with 25,666 respondents. Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, iPod and Nike - not even in the top ten. Who made it into the top 10? WD-40 (#6 with $25,400 in media spending), Heinz ketchup (#7 with a $413,800 budget), Ziploc bags, Ziploc containers, Clorox bleach, Hershey's candy bars, Kleenex tissues, Windex glass cleaner and Campbell's soups.

A spokesperson explained the #1 ranking by talking about Reynold Wrap's ability to meet consumer's expectations for the product, including its innovations and overall quality. Looking at the Top Ten list I might add that they all serve the person who is confronting the everyday hassles of life by offering simple and predictable solutions.

Some marketers talk about many of these products as 'low involvement' verging on commodity status (who doesn't refer to any glass cleaners as 'Windex' - let alone its iconic status from My Big Fat Greek Wedding as a cure for almost anything, 'pass me a Kleenex,' 'he has Ziploc lips about it'). In the social marketing business, we should be so fortunate as to have 'low involvement' behaviors to focus on.  After all, health and social change are the most important things in people's lives. Or maybe not. Maybe we make them BIG decisions rather than treat them as the ordinary, everyday behaviors that could be solving some of life's little problems.

Some people want to be like Mike and run a social marketing program with all the bells and whistles. But where is Gatorade on this Top 10 list? I want to be more like Reynolds Wrap - introducing and marketing behaviors that a lot of people think about, reach for and use everyday to make their life, and the lives of those around them, a little better.

Technorati Tags: Brand Equity, Reynolds Wrap, Social Marketing

When Is It Social Marketing?

A simple enough question that gets awfully complex when looking for it in case studies and other descriptions of practice (see BC Walks and the many programs in Social Marketing in the News). Another article from this month's issue of Preventing Chronic Disease came up on my 'social marketing' RSS feed from PubMed and reading through it caused me to ask the question again. My concern with Cherokee Choices isn't with the program they present. It's not even with their labeling of a seven-part cable television series of interviews with people who have experience with diabetes and three 30-second TV spots as a "Social Marketing Initiative."

It's that a publication and set of peer reviewers who want the statistical software [SPSS 13.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, Ill) and SPSS 12.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, Ill)], qualitative data analytic package [Atlas.ti (Atlas.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin, Germany)] and body-fat analyzer [Futrex–6100XL body-fat analyzer (Spencer Medical Inc, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif), which can measure between 3% and 45% of body fat] documented in the paper cannot suggest to the authors that a term like Health Communication, Mass Media or Television "Initiative" might be a more appropriate description of that component of the program.

Of course, it is all a matter of priorities I suppose. My suggestion is that the journal and its reviewers have a set of questions they can ask themselves when reviewing manuscripts that contain the term 'social marketing.'

1. Do the authors understand and have an insight into their target audience?
2. Are they focusing on behavior as their product (what are they encouraging a large number of people to adopt or sustain)?
3. Do they influence or try to alter the relative balance of incentives and costs for either maintaining the current behavior or adopting a new one?
4. Do they attempt to increase access and opportunities for the audience to try the new behavior and then sustain it?
5. Are communication and other promotional techniques used to assure that they reach and engage the audience in ways that are relevant, attention-getting, tap into existing motivations and aspirations and have sufficient frequency to be remembered and acted on?

If you can answer 'yes' to all of these questions, you may have a social marketing program.  I say 'may' because you can meet these critieria with a diverse set of tactics that have no integrative strategy or focus for each audience.  HOW the planners address each of these questions with their program is up to their own frame of reference, results of audience research, community participation, theoretical bent, review of evidence-based practices, morals, values, ego, etc…. And how they obtain and analyze the data are another set of questions.

I believe that a lot of times it is not that people are confused about what is social marketing, they just need some help seeing it. Reviewers and editors can serve that function. Hope these questions are helpful.

Technorati Tags: Diabetes, Health Communications, Native Americans, Peer Review, Social Marketing

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

National Prevention Summit

Registration for the The National Prevention Summit is now open at National Prevention Summit. The Summit will be held October 26-27, 2006 in Washington, DC.  Registration this year is FREE and space is limited.  From the promo -

[It] will feature innovative programs that are making a difference in communities across the country to build a HealthierUS.  These programs are focused on healthy lifestyle choices eating a nutritious diet, being physically active, making healthy choices, and getting preventive screenings to help prevent major health threats and burdens such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, cancer, heart disease, and stroke.  One special emphasis this year will be the prevention of childhood overweight and obesity.  Another emphasis will be preparing for public health emergencies, such as avian influenza.

Technorati tags: Health Education Health Promotion National Prevention Summit

 

The New Tobacco Playbook

Imagine a world in which every cigarette company — not just the big ones that have settled lawsuits — have to abide by the same set of rules. Manufacturing standards would be established by the F.D.A., standards that might well, over time, make cigarettes at least a little less harmful. Imagine a world in which advertising and marketing disappears completely, where cigarettes have to be placed out of sight in retail stores, where warning labels on cigarette packs are as big and scary as they are in much of Europe, where smoking in public places is outlawed everywhere, where cessation programs are national in scope and where efforts to reduce youth smoking are no longer sporadic or piecemeal. Imagine a world in which tobacco policy evolves out of a sustained national effort rather than from the vagaries of litigation, the half-measures of the M.S.A. or the attitudes of state officials.

That's one of the visions explored in Sunday's New York Times Magazine. Another is that any moves toward regulating the tobacco industry will play right into their hands. Some anti-tobacco advocates are still feeling the burn from the last effort to have the FDA regulate the tobacco industry - a battle that wound up in the US Congress and eventually a less satisfactory (for some) Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).

In interviews with Steve Parrish of Altria (the parent of Phillip Morris), Joe Nocera tees up the next big push for FDA regulation of the tobacco industry: this time championed by Phillip Morris. What's in for them? As one observer described their attitude toward regulation: 'Just tell us what the rules are and we'll beat the pants off the competition.' Problem is, their competition believes the same thing (they WILL get their pants beat off).

Nocera raises several questions if what's good for Phillip Morris is good for Public Health?

• Would regulation increase its legitimacy as a business and thus increase the market value of Altria?

• Would it make it possible for tobacco companies to more aggressively market 'low harm' tobacco products - like smokeless tobacco - by mandating product and health claims as well as marketing policies? [see comment above]

Or will public health stand by and watch while Phillip Morris beats the pants off the smokeless tobacco marketers now with Taboka and other products (don't believe this isn't a gambit). And will the anti-tobacco forces rally against the use of African roots - and the menthol option - of Taboka as they rallied against Uptown cigarettes? Don't think that's not being tracked.

One group of public health advocates take the position: If Phillip Morris (Altria) is for FDA regulation, then I'm against it! People like Stan Glanz (hmm, no links to a quick bio - major international tobacco control advocate) are on record as saying to leave the problem of "putting the tobacco companies out of business" to the grassroots guerrilla tobacco fighters who have proved themselves over the past 20 years.

Others want to seize any opportunity to limit tobacco company marketing and reduce through regulation the public health carnage cigarettes leave in their wake.  Matt Myers: If you had a product that addicted 45 million people and killed none of them, I would take that deal. Then you'd have coffee!

The article comes at a time when Phillip Morris is setting their lobbying and public relations strategy for the next Congressional session in 2007. This article describes some of the discussions already going on; there is time for you to make up your own mind.

But the history and lessons learned of attempting to regulate and negotiate with the tobacco industry should lead to a reflective moment among those taking similar types of positions to turn the tide of the obesity epidemic. Unintended consequences are sometimes the result of not heeding the lessons. And there are several of them just below the surface in the latest playbook. #1: Look like you're playing nice.

President Bill Clinton speaks to the media at a press conference for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. Joining Clinton, from left, Donald R. Knaus, President of Coco-Cola; Dawn Hudson, President of PepsiCo; Dr. Robert Eckel, President of the American Heart Association; Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; Ralph Crowley, Chairman of the American Beverage Association; Susan Neely, President of the American Beverage Association; Gilbert Caggagne, President of Cadbury Schweppes Americas. [Link]

Update: A reader wrote in to note that I misspelled Stan's last name - no wonder no bio. It's Stan Glantz, and thanks Barbara!

Technorati Tags: FDA, Phillip Morris, Public Health, Regulation of Tobacco Companies

Moscow Metro, George Bernard Shaw and PlayStation 3

Wikipedia, the inspiration for many wikis that have followed, goes MSM (main stream media) in the New York Times today. The article describes the steps it has taken to provide a level of quality control for its entries - which are open to anyone to contribute to or edit. Of the over 1.2 million entries, as of Friday 261 of them have been temporarily placed on 'protected' or 'semi-protected' status.

The article does note a review of the accuracy of some of Wikipedia's scientific entries conducted by the journal Nature last year. The results were that Wikipedia entries were no more likely to contain inaccuracies than were those in  Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Hard to believe that this open source application is now the Web's 3rd most popular source for news and information. Then again, maybe not. Stay tuned for news about social marketing and wikis.

Technorati Tags: Editorial Policy, Wikipedia, wikis

Is Obesity Prevention a Legal Problem?

The Kaiser Network reviews Obesity and Public Health Law that appears in the Thursday edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. From their summary:

...anti-obesity initiatives are most likely to be accepted if they focus on children and adolescents, and states must conduct evaluations of their current anti-obesity initiatives. They also say that additional research on advertising could help build the case for regulation of food products and call on the U.S. to encourage the food industry to self-regulate. Finally, the authors recommend that the initial strategy for regulation concentrate on improving public awareness of the role of the food industry and the food environment in contributing to obesity.

Refer to tobacco playbook for more details. With the recent voluntary school vending machine agreement can other forms of restricting access and economic disincentives (all right - taxes) be far behind? The question is on whom will the tax burden fall first? [Hint: think excise taxes to fund anti-obesity programs. It's in the playbook.] Will there still be room for social marketing approaches to obesity prevention and new strategies for public education programs to fight the obesity epidemic or has the legal train left the station?

Technorati Tags: Obesity, Legal Strategies, Public Policy

Social Marketing in the News

New Program Preaches Energy Efficiency

EarthCare Sudbury was chosen as one of seven pilot projects to receive a one-year grant from the conservation fund of the Ontario Conservation Bureau.

“The Sudbury proposal blew the socks off of the other 21 submissions from other cities and towns. It is because of  the partnerships EarthCare Sudbury has developed, 100 in total, and also their emphasis on using social marketing efforts to motivate the community," said Love.

Care Before Conception

There is "huge interest" in the idea of pre-conception care in the United States and internationally, said Dr. Hani Atrash, associate director for program development, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

"What's missing is how do we integrate the concept into the public health system and make it a standard of care," he added, pointing out "one size doesn't fit all" because of individual health issues.

"The challenge is social marketing, not only to the consumers, but to providers, hospitals, public health departments, insurers and others," he said.

ADB Signs Agreement with Pakistan to Reduce Anemia, Folic Acid Deficiency

The government of Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed a Letter of Agreement on a $2 million grant for pilot project to fortify flour and reduce anemia and folic acid deficiency…

"The project will help define realistic objectives and strategies for the sustainable expansion of flour fortification at small scale Chakkis," Feden says " This will protect up to 50-60 per cent of the population, mainly the rural poor , who are served only by chakkis."

It will also assist local government child/ women welfare groups, and NGOs to create community support and consumer demand for fortified floor. The project will upgrade up to 100 chakkis in two districts. Collaborative government support system will be established for flour inspection and testing social marketing, public education and nutrition monitoring.

Pacific Island Countries Are Vulnerable To HIV Spread, Survey Shows

Rising numbers of sexually transmitted infections in Pacific Island countries threaten to spark the spread of HIV in the region, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) warned today.

Surveys of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections and risky sexual behaviour conducted in six sentinel countries – Fiji. Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu – indicated a ripe scenario for the spread of HIV in the Pacific…

Dr Chen said social marketing strategies are needed to increase access to and acceptance of condoms in the community, as well as to identify novel approaches to raise awareness of risk behaviours in at-risk and vulnerable groups.

Love Them Safely

SISTERS, which is located on Soi Yen Sabai, is a center for the transgender population. That is, they serve the “ladyboy” or katoey community. Their mission is to change the behaviors of the transgenders who are at risk for HIV and other STIs by providing information together with a “social marketing strategy.” Their main services include a drop-in center and outreach activities. SISTERS provides on site medical services, one to one counseling and skills development, as well as club activities such as make-up, sports and cooking. One of their goals is to foster public support and greater acceptance of the transgender community in Pattaya.

Technorati Tags: Anemia, Energy Conservation, Folic Acid Deficiency, HIV/AIDS, Pre-conception Care, Social Marketing

Program Planning 2.0

Account planning is, for me, the bridge between reality and creativity when it comes to developing the social marketing and health communications programs that inspire and move our audiences (as well as many of our peers). Whether they carry such a moniker in your world, you uncover account planners (pdf file) by their fascination with the audience and understanding of their reality. They can then take the uncommon step of not just reporting what they have learned, but can transform and frame these observations into insights and suggestions that spark the creative fires of everyone around them.

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a BIG fan of this process (see here and here). I also have a certain simpatico with account planners, so Craig Walmsley's article on how planners need to adjust to the Web 2.0 era speaks equally well to the people working on social as well as commercial accounts. Here are two excerpts:

It is insufficient to understand demographic or attitudinal information about a target audience. Who the individual is, what they want and are interested in, how they receive communications, and how they buy must all be viewed through the prism of the individual’s understanding and use of technology...

Having to understand both the attitudes and behaviors of customers with respect to Brands, messages and technologies, planners should be in a position to understand the “creative,” “media” and “technical” teams, and provide a means to translate communications between them. Planners will broker the ideation process, using customer insight as the effective means of exchange.  In addition, having formulated the desired end of the activity, the planner will be in an ideal position to validate that the proposed solution is relevant, actionable and on message.

The opportunities posed by the growing acceptance of new media among many of our audiences for social marketing and social change programs (and this includes the audiences necessary for success) can be summed in the 5Es: how to educate, engage, entertain, empower and evangelize with our audiences, not at them.

It's not about using new media; it's about using media in new ways.

You'll recognize the people you work with who don't get it when you experience this scenario (also from Craig's article):

The usual ad agency response to such changes [new media] is to insist that they are “media-neutral” and “idea-focused”. Of course, they say, we know that digital has an impact, we’re not living in the past! – and look! - this tag line can be put in a banner! This response is just not cutting the digital mustard anymore.

Technorati Tags: Account Planning. Advertising, Audience Insight, Communications Programs, Marketing, Social Media

The Wiring of Teen America

CBS News has a series of special features on GenTech. Lots of usage data and features including MySpace (complete with a tour of a profile), gaming and trends using a variety of media and interactive formats. A good place to enjoy learning about the teen audience and new media. And the good news is they conclude that the kids are all right.

via BuzzMachine

Technorati Tags: Media Use, Social Media, Teens

Social Media for Grown-Ups

Yes it's a health communication campaign and does not have a lot of the elements of a full social marketing program - heavy on what I call the un-4Ps of marketing: posters, pamphlets, PSAs and publicity. But the notable item is where I found it: today's The Huffington Post.

Yes, public health campaigns aimed at tweens and teens have advertised and promoted on social networking sites, but a campaign aimed at adults through blogs? Finally (I've seen one anyway)!

Kudos to the Post, one of the most read blogs for running the ad on the main page. For those of you who wonder (or know people who do) whether social media is something to be considering in your communications mix if your audience isn't teens - take note! Especially if you're going after the influentials.

BTW - dontpassgas is a new riff on the 'take it outside' approach to environmental tobacco smoke from the American Legacy Foundation and Ad Council.

Technorati Tags: Blogs, ETS, Health Communications, Influentials, PSAs

Can You Sell Responsibility Like Insurance?

The marketing strand of social marketing is often traced back to a question posed by Wiebe in 1951: Why can't you sell brotherhood like soap? Today, the people at Hill|Holliday and Liberty Mutual are demonstrating an updated approach to answering this question with the Responsibility: What's Your Policy campaign.

For an inside look at the campaign read the H|Hblog - one of the first advertising agencies I've seen to drop the web site approach and adopt an engagement philosophy towards all of their communications efforts. Makes me wonder what's holding up some PR firms from moving to corporate blog sites. I would think that living the commitment to engagement would be top of mind for some of them - and not just putting up a blog off in a corner of the web site. Be sure to note the Comments on the campaign at the H|H blog!

Whether it's brotherhood or responsibility, the challenge remains: Making the intangible tangible.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Hill Holliday, Liberty Mutual, Responsibility

Opening Moments

An effective communication plan for a social marketing program needs to consider any number of variables. The most important are the openings: those times, places and frames of mind when people are most likely to be receptive to and responsive to the message. Posts by Seth Godin and Nedra Weinreich brought me to think about openings and the problem of marketing the newly approved vaccine for cervical cancer.

Seth's take: So, let's try to imagine that conversation taking place across the dinner tables and examination rooms across America... The idea that parents can be reached and then persuaded to confront these issues, in our culture, is a little overwhelming.

Nedra responds to the bait - Seth's title of the post "A marketing gig that nobody wants" - and goes on to suggest how she would use social marketing to take it.

We would need to figure out what the key values are of the parents ... Position the vaccine as preventing cervical cancer... Get the CDC to add the vaccine to their recommended immunization schedule ... Get insurance companies to cover some of the costs of the vaccination.

At its core, the marketing problem is how to talk with your daughter about an immunization against an infection (HPV)  that is transmitted through sexual intercourse. Well, how about when the parents decide it's time to talk about birth control? Her physician is prescribing birth control pills?

There are a number of other issues that the vaccine may face where social marketing would also be useful. I'm with Nedra that it is a marketing gig, Seth, worth taking. Lives depend on it.

Technorati Tags: Cervical Cancer, Cancer Vaccine, Gardasil, Marketing