On Social Marketing and Social Change

Fruit, Milk and Grains - Breakfast?

Designing behaviors that influence weight management focus on various aspects of everyday life: perhaps the most important time and place seems to be breakfast [see Ma et al 2003; Berkey et al 2003 - Abstract; Siega-Riz et al,1998 - pdf available).

I'm not sure if there are data to support this, but a consistent observation we made during the early days of the 5 A Day Program was that people who 'got behind' by not having a serving of fruit (or 2) in the morning had a very hard time in catching up during the rest of the day.

On that note, these two related stories this AM.

The milk industry launched a new campaign today that is taking a different approach to appeal to teenagers...Body By Milk is encouraging teens to grab lowfat milk instead of sugary sodas because -- along with staying active and eating right -- it may help them achieve a healthy weight.

The USDA has approved the use of the Whole Grain Stamp for use with grain-containing meat products. The Stamp is a parallel idea to the 5 A Day logo, and is another opportunity to provide discriminative stimuli, environmental cues (pick your theoretical model) to encourage healthier point-of-choice decisions.

The Grain Stamp is already being considered by producers of frozen entrees, but what would happen if the commodity groups ever got it together for joint marketing programs? Is win-win-win a possibility?

Campaign announcements via The Morning Cup.

Technorati Tags: Breakfast, Grain Stamp, Milk Processors, Obesity, Partnerships

Hello Jupiter? Anyone Home?

While other bloggers are trying to track down which Senator has put a 'hold' on legislation to create more transparency on what companies are doing business with the Federal government, and for how much, we have our own tempest in the social marketing teapot.

It started with this announcement from JupiterResearch and subsequently carried by several news services. Here's an excerpt from Business Wire:

Through best-practice analysis and consumer and executive surveys, JupiterResearch's Social Marketing research will provide marketers and site owners with recommendations on how to profit from the use of consumer generated content, blogs, podcasts, and other emerging media tools.

Rohit picked up the ball and noted that 'social marketing' was already taken.

Nedra was also posting at Spare Change and she and I both left comments at Influential Interactive Marketing.

Now this morning I'm getting emails from colleagues, who obviously subscribe to Google alerts, asking what's going on? .

Here's my open letter to Jupiter. Take a few minutes, and using the email link, let them know what you think 'social marketing' means. After all, we are a community too - aren't we?

An Open Letter to JupiterResearch (since you can't email a real person in a market research company)

As a 'research' firm, did anyone suggest to Emily that she google the term social marketing' before running with it? And if she did, what decisions were being made and why after you looked at the results?

Since it's only been around for 35 years to refer to marketing efforts for ideas and behaviors that have social benefits, have you simply overlooked it - or ignored it?

It is also astounding to me that a company trying to position itself as an expert in social network solutions can display such obvious insensitivity by ignoring the existing community.

When Forrester was made aware of their inaccurate use of the term (as in 'social marketing bootcamp'), they did the right thing. What about you?

Technorati Tags: JupiterResearch, Social Media, Social Networks, Social Marketing

Boomer Trends and Changing Food Consumption Behaviors

The Hartman Group looks at seven lifestyle trends affecting food consumption behaviors among boomers. Think: balance, authority, simplicity, vitality, mobility, authenticity and control.

Some of these ideas have clear implications for program implementation. Also consider how they might influence the types of behaviors you design for people to choose and eat more healthy foods.

via The Morning Cup (free subscription required)

Technorati Tags: Audience Insights, Boomers, Eating Behaviors, Trends

What the Heck is Health Marketing?

The world of health communications and social marketing has taken another turn in the road at the CDC. The website for the new National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM), an article in Preventing Chronic Disease and briefings at various conferences the past few months have been introducing the term “health marketing.” What is meant is creating, communicating, and delivering health information and interventions using consumer-centered and science-based strategies to protect and promote the health of diverse populations. Health marketing uses the science and strategies of commercial marketing to promote its products, namely, evidence-based health information and interventions. Still, people ask...

Since the introduction of health communications at CDC in 1993, the practice of health communications and social marketing has bloomed (disclosure: I was the Project Director for the first agency-wide support contract in this area).  Yet, in the midst of a reorganization at the CDC, the NCHM was created and the question I have heard many times is – what is it? And how is it different from social marketing and health communications?

I’m not going to try to climb into the heads of the people who make such semantic distinctions, but the mission of the Center gives me the strongest clue: …protect and promote health and advance CDC’s goals through innovative health marketing programs, products, and services that are consumer-centered, high impact, and science based. I conclude that they are not going to be in the behavior, environment or social change business – they are going to emulate their commercial marketing and international social marketing colleagues and create goods and services to market with a reinvigorated corps of intermediaries and partners.

The NCHM’s core functions are: customer and market research, product production and packaging, product distribution and customer relationship management. They have taken the marketing ideas to heart, but unfortunately seem to be the leaving the ‘social’ elements behind (…[social] marketing techniques are the bridging mechanisms between the simple possession of knowledge and the socially useful implementation of that knowledge).  There has always been a cadre of people who have believed that ‘social marketing’ is not what these agencies are in the business of doing. The arguments include: We are science-based organizations, not change agents. Social marketing programs take too long to plan, are too big and too expensive in these days of reduced budgets. We can leverage our relationships with partners to do more with less – if we just give them the right tools and know-how. How do we know that social marketing really works?

All fair positions to take, if not completely accurate. Government policy making is the biggest instrument of change in any society: leaving change to chance in not an option. Social marketing programs come in all shapes and sizes – it’s a way of thinking about population health, not a recipe book (as much as some people try to make it one). Partners are even more stretched with fewer resources than the Federal agencies, especially when you look at trying to implement health promotion and disease prevention programs at the state and local level. And the National Social Marketing Centre has been able to compile quite a list of evidence reviews (let alone what gets covered In The News).

Maybe the NCHM will become a focused effort to confront a problem many of us in this business lament: there is more good science about what works than there is science and resources to systematically apply it to addressing public health problems (bringing it to scale). These ‘dissemination gaps’ between what is published in the professional journals and what gets practiced in the field have begged for attention for decades. Is bringing more marketing expertise to dissemination necessary? Absolutely! Is a methodical process to revamping the way the CDC – and other HHS agencies – prioritize and fund dissemination applications (and not more research into the process) important? Absolutely!

Whether it’s called health marketing or something else may be beside the point right now. What remains to be seen is whether the NCHM makes good on the (implied) promise: bringing marketing to all aspects of the public health enterprise from research and development activities to dissemination trials to national implementation.

However, I do have to comment on this closing statement in the PCD article: “Like the application of marketing to public health, NCHM is in its early days.” Well, if 20 years of experience makes this ‘the early days,’ than so be it.  I hope that the staff at the NCHM read and learn a little from the experience of marketing and communications at CDC as well as in the broader framework of public health before thinking they are starting from scratch.  I suggest The Marketing of Ideas and Social Issues by Seymour Fine (1981), Marketing Health Behavior (1984; Frederiksen, Solomon & Brehony), Manoff’s Social Marketing: New Imperative for Public Health (1985), Social Marketing and Public Health Intervention by myself and June Flora (1988), Social Marketing by  Kotler & Roberto (1989), and a chapter on Social Marketing by Novelli (1990). And in the last 15 years social marketing research and practice has exploded, with a nearly five-fold increase in articles appearing in professional journals from 1999-2004.

And here’s an old definition of ‘health marketing’ I dug up (p.302): Health marketing refers to health promotion programs that are designed to satisfy consumer needs, strategized to reach as broad an audience as is in need of the program, and thereby enhance the organization’s ability to effect population-wide changes in targeted risk behaviors.

Semantics and tactics aside, let’s all keep our eye on the goal posts.

technorati tags: CDC, Health_Communication, Health_Marketing, Information_Dissemination, Social_Marketing

Going Mobile for Change

When you look at your cell phone, what do you see? More important, what do you think about?

Text messaging (or SMS), especially among teens and young adults is part of the bigger picture. Using the phone as a camera is becoming popular as well (I've seen references that 44% of people use their mobile as their primary camera). And with virtually all mobiles being SMS-capable and web-enabled by 2009 (it's about 94% and 41% now), the question becomes how these technologies might contribute to positive social and health change.

Since ways of interacting with and among social networks for public health and social change has reignited my imagination, I have been looking at how other people have been using mobile phones for things other than consumer marketing and entertainment. One belief I do have is that mobile phones are one of the most, if not most, important everyday gadgets that almost everyone has access to [and in most of the world, cell phone use is leapfrogging hard lines]. NOT exploring their use is a form of social marketing and health communications malpractice.

Here are a few places I've discovered that have stimulated my thinking in this area.

A post at SmartMobs notes a UK study documenting the many other uses people find for their mobile phones including citizen journalism and increasing personal safety at night. Mobumentaries - people using their phones to create mini-movies documenting their lives.

Thoughts about mobile technologies and social change movements that were also covered here: The combination of MySpace and cell phones, along with some old fashioned fliers, were credited with organizing the large student protests against the proposed immigration bill in March. Just imagine if while at the marches, students posted photos, videos, and text messages to a social networking website or to the website of a group organizing against the bill, and they also sent these messages to all their online friends.

A literature review of mobile technologies and learning at Futurelab: Mobile technologies are a familiar part of the lives of most teachers and students in the UK today. We take it for granted that we can talk to other people at any time, from wherever we may be; we are beginning to see it as normal that we can access information, take photographs, record our thoughts with one device, and that we can share these with our friends, colleagues or the wider world. Newer developments in mobile phone technology are also beginning to offer the potential for rich multimedia experiences and for location-specific resources.

The University of Sydney, Australia will be hosting an international conference on social and cultural aspects of mobile phones, convergent media, and wireless technologies 2-4 July 2007. Having become an important technology for voice and text communication in the daily lives of billions of people, mobiles are now recognised as central not only for communications but also for contemporary transformations in cultural and social practices, and in new developments in computing, media, telecommunications, Internet, and entertainment.

From a more commercial perspective, here's an introduction to, and overview of, the Mobile Marketing movement; and keep up with events in the field at the Mobile Marketing Association site. Also see these links to examples of three commercial mobile marketing campaigns, including one for McDonald's.

Nedra's also been talking about cell phones and social marketing at Spare Change. One of the pioneers in using the technology at the local level has been the San Francisco Department of Public Health and their SexInfo text messaging system for sexual health. The use of mobile technologies for obesity management has also received a lot of empirical attention.

And some blogs that focus on mobile applications for education, engagement and behavior change you may want to check in with periodically are Mobile Learning, Mobile Active, and Captology Notebook where they are compiling examples of mobile persuasion technologies in their Boomer Mobile Health Project. The Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab is also hosting a conference on mobile persuasion this Fall.

And for a glimpse of the (near) future, tonight (Sunday) Cingular and Sprint wireless customers can watch the Emmy's live via GoTV.  {Sigh} I won't be upgrading my mobile until the end of the year (Verizon incentive policy for replacements), so in the meantime I'm experimenting with Google's SMS service and Yahoo! mobile alerts...and looking for a few peers who aren't too old to try new tricks and experiment with some new ideas. One of my favorites is mobile-enabled walksheds.

m(mobile)-Change. The next time you look at your phone.

technorati tags: Behavior_Change, Cell_Phones, Health_Communication, Mobile, SMS, Social_Change, Social_Marketing

Social Marketing in the News

B-School Grads to Promote Condoms

In a first of its kind decision, the ministry's National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) has decided to create a special Technical Resource Group (TRG) comprising management graduates specialising in finance and marketing from B-schools and consulting firms, to help the ministry identify new avenues of popularising the condom…. The team will have the best brains coming out of top Indian business schools. They will not work out of the health ministry but will be housed at the Hindustan Latex's social marketing office…[It] would consist of experts on marketing development, finance and communication.

Study: College Students Practice Safer Drinking Habits

"The post-graduate market is getting much more competitive and because of that, students are recognizing what they need to do to succeed. This is contributing to a trend toward more safe and healthy college behavior, as well as the avoidance of high-risk alcohol use."

The refining of policies and enforcement of these policies has also impacted the number of students who drink irresponsibly, Loew said. There is also an increased push towards educating students on how alcohol impacts their lives.

Loew said that Purdue recently received a $300,000 grant that will utilize a comprehensive program to help professors, teaching assistants, advisers and parents to discourage students from underage drinking.

"This is a social-marketing campaign," she said. "There are a lot of components, and we hope to address the issue from every facet possible."

Column: Make PSAs Stand Out in the Crowd

In a media environment of countless social marketing messages, how do you develop one that will be remembered by your target audience and have a lasting impact on your cause?

An increasingly cluttered media environment in recent years has produced more competition for nonprofits, government agencies and others to communicate such messages. The Advertising Council has responded by focusing on areas integral to creating effective public service announcements:
• Develop the highest quality creative.
• Conduct targeted media outreach.
• Complement PSAs with public relations and integrated communications programs.

technorati tags: Condoms, Drinking, Health_Communication, Health_Promotion, PSAs, Social_Marketing

Segmenting People in Poverty

Using marketing strategies to address health and social problems has reached the anti-poverty enterprise in New York City.

Leaders of a mayoral commission charged with working to eradicate poverty in New York City are scaling back wider ambitions to instead focus on helping three distinct populations: young children, young adults and the working poor.

An article in the New York Times looks at the concerns about segmenting people in poverty and focusing resources on priority audiences - as I've noted before, probably the toughest decisions faced by a social marketing program.

Every one on all sides of such debates raise good points. It can be a painful process for all, but positive outcomes are achievable when one balances short-term gains with long-term goals - something that critics of segmentation and prioritization sometimes forget ['There is a tomorrow' and 'Build on success']. Here's the closer from the article that hopefully heralds a positive beginning for these new efforts:

Merryl H. Tisch ... said that she had been “a little taken aback” when her attempts to include the problems of the elderly were rebuffed. Still, she said, she came to see that the commission was not the place to deal with them, and called the focus on youth and the working poor realistic.

“You can’t do everything in one fell swoop,” she said. “You have to do things that the city can afford and that state and federal funding would help subsidize. It’s not a perfect world, but just trying to undertake this is extraordinary.”

technorati tags: Audience_Segmentation, New_York_City, Poverty_Programs, Priority-Setting

The Economics of Obesity

Is the increase in the prevalence of obesity partially due to cheaper food, easier accessibility to it, the prevalence of junk foods, more sedentary occupations, racial or socioeconomic status, social norms and expectations, incentives, or patterns of decision-making (discounting)?

...our goal ought to be to manage the consequences of obesity, by addressing its health impacts and making people accountable for bearing the costs and enjoying the benefits of their own weight choices. [Darius Lakdawalla]

...the results suggest that tailoring public health messages to marshal the attention of different cohorts in the U.S. -- and taking into account different norms and expectations -- might make them more effective. [Carol Graham]

Two economists discuss the possibilities at EconoBlog, a free feature of The Wall Street Journal. A different perspective from what you usually see in the public health world where it tends to be all about bad boys and girls (aka consumers, businesses and policy makers).

technorati tags: Economics, Obesity_Prevention, Social_Norms

Canadians' Perspective on Childhood Obesity

The Canadian Medical Society released their 2006 National Report Card today showing that despite 26% of children being classified as either overweight or obese, only 9% of parents report that their own child is overweight. Whatever attribution you might make for this disparity of perception and reality, the fact remains that parents, for the most part, do not see the personal relevance in getting more involved in preventing childhood obesity. Results from another study also document the notion that few parents are prepared to help their overweight or obese child lose weight.

What is also interesting in this survey are the very high percentages of people who endorse policy approaches to curbing the obesity epidemic.

• 92% support mandatory physical activity for children in schools.
• 87% support a mandatory school curriculum on the benefits of physical activity and healthy diet.
• 81% endorse removing junk foods (high in sugar, fat and salt) from school vending machines.
• 63% favor tax breaks on purchase of healthy foods.
• 80% support tax deductions for parents to offset fees for sports or other physical activity programs.
• 43% support a sales tax on junk foods.

The Globe and Mail reports that the CMA's policy convention this week is expected to call on Ottawa and the provinces to adopt some specific targets for improving child health, and to support the adoption of a Charter of Children's Health.

I wonder what the percentages would be in the US? And it's not too early to start thinking about Healthy People objectives for 2020.

via The Morning Cup

technorati tags: Canadian_Medical_Association, Childhood_Obesity, Obesity_Prevention, Parents, Policy

Call for Research on Social Media

Danah Boyd is issuing a call to gather together people who are conducting research on social networking sites and have published in the area. Peer-reviewed publications are of particular interest. It's an interesting, but short, list right now.

If you, or people you know, are conducting research or have published on this subject, please let her know (and cc me if you will). Thanks! Building the empirical base is an essential element in understanding, enhancing and sustaining these types of social e-networks.

technorati tags: Research, Social_Networking_Sites

Speaking of Social Media

Social media present one of the latest set of opportunities for marketing and communications programs for health promotion and social change. Since I first talked about blending these approaches at the Social Marketing in Public Health Conference, I have been invited by colleagues at several universities and agencies to reprise elements of it. The presentation (pdf file) has been posted at the conference site along with a number of other highlights from the meeting.

My intention is to present an introduction/overview of Web 2.0, social media and social marketing. Two key goals are to (1) create interest and enthusiasm for trying out new technologies that focus on social networks and not individuals, and (2) encourage adoption of some of these technologies in your professional life.

Some of the key points in the presentation are:

• The often neglected social nature of many health behaviors we focus  on in public health interventions.
• How new technologies and software are making social networks more tangible both in terms of interacting with them and measuring results.
• Principles of marketing, such as segmentation, still operate in this new world.
• Audience generated content and engagement is a reality for developing public health programs in this new environment. [Note: this subject is the one that generates the most concern among my audiences.]
• Many people are approaching the new media with the cookie cutters they used before; this needs to change to realize the power of social media to facilitate a multi-directional communication and influence process.

There are also four quotes in the presentation that make up the takeaway:

Web 2.0 sites are not online places to visit so much as services to get something done -- usually with other people – Business Week

The Social Web empowers people's ability to engage in self-expression and communicate and share information with whomever they choose – Tech Crunch

Social technologies succeed when they fit into the social lives and practices of those who engage with the technology – Danah Boyd

It’s not about using new technologies; it’s about new ways to use technology – Craig Lefebvre

Consider this my first take on the new world of social marketing, social networks and social media.  I'll be picking up on several of these themes, and some newer ones, over the next few weeks, including at the National Health Promotion Conference in Atlanta next month. What will you be doing in the new world?

technorati tags: Behavior_Change, Health_Communications, Health_Promotion, Public_Health, Social_Media, Social_Marketing, Social_Networks

Social Marketing in the News

Sex Taboos Hamper Safety Message for Gay Chinese

…In China, homosexuality, while no longer officially considered a mental disorder, is still an off limits subject for many. That taboo often extends to discussions about AIDS and condom use for men who have sex with men… "Sex is taboo, and condoms have mainly been used as part of family planning rather than for safe sex," said Lee Folland, a graduate student doing research at Cambridge University on the social marketing of condoms in China.  In a Beijing survey, only 15 percent of 482 men who had sex with men understood that they were at risk of contracting HIV, according to a 2005 report by the United Nations' UNAIDS. [More coverage.]

San Francisco Gay Clubs to ‘Bar AIDS’

Thirteen bars in seven San Francisco neighborhoods will donate a portion of their sales on Thursday, Aug. 24, to support the work of the STOP AIDS Project… STOP AIDS and several bars and clubs have worked together on social marketing campaigns, fundraisers, and safe-sex workshops as early as 1984 and as recently as last June to mark 25 years of HIV/AIDS.

Consumers Demanding Firms Support Charities

In previous years, companies were eyed with skepticism when they tried to use ties with charities to advertise their goods. For some reason, consumers disliked the fact that for-profit firms were making donations to sell more of their products. It seemed that such firms should be making donations, but not in a high-profile way, and not linked to product sales.

Today, many firms are actually creating links with charities in order to give their brands more substance. McDonald’s started it years ago with Ronald McDonald house. Tim Hortons expanded this notion, not just with their camps for underprivileged children, but through very heavy sponsorship of children’s sports teams, from hockey to soccer… While there is certainly more money going toward a variety of philanthropic endeavours, firms are still very concerned about the marketing return from social marketing.

Council to Review Report on Meth

A long-awaited report on what steps the city should take to combat the devastating effects of methamphetamine will be presented to the [Long Beach, CA] City Council Tuesday night…

Also scheduled for Tuesday's council meeting is a presentation on a much beefier report prepared by a group of local health care and research organizations… The health organizations advocate a social marketing campaign centered on the drug and more support groups for parents, students and meth users.

Condoms Critical in Reducing HIV Prevalence in Zimbabwe

Although measuring condom use is difficult, many studies in Zimbabwe show that the condom is the prevention method of choice among single, sexually active men. They appear to be relying on condoms as the prevention method of choice for non-marital relationships. Condoms also serve a dual purpose—both as a contraceptive and as a prophylactic.

Although a causal relationship linking condom use to the HIV decline is hard to trace, trend data show that as condom distribution has expanded dramatically -- from just over 20 million in 1994 to over 80 million in 2004 — the HIV infection rate has slowed and even dipped among certain groups.

The female condom has also been enormously successful since women’s advocacy groups lobbied for its introduction in 1997. The number of female condoms publicly distributed and socially marketed increased from about 200,000 in 2000 to a peak of 1.4 million in 2002—before declining to just under 1.2 million in 2005. Today, the female condom is widely available in Zimbabwe’s urban areas, and the Government is now seeking to meet the needs of women living in more remote, rural regions.

technorati tags: Health_Communications, Health_Education, HIV/AIDS, Methamphetamine, Social_Marketing, Social_Responsibility

Social Marketing Audio Conference

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America is sponsoring an audio conference on social marketing Thursday, August 31st.

Effective social marketing programs include more than a message or a mass media campaign and much of what it takes to put together a comprehensive social marketing program is already being done by coalitions around the country. This session will outline the steps for developing a strategic social marketing plan. Discussion will include the differences between social and commercial marketing, use of logic models, the importance of research and evaluation and tactics that social marketers use to implement behavior change.

Registration information here.

technorati tags: CADCA, Conference, SocialMarketing

Food Vending Machines in Public Places

While food and beverage vending machines in schools have been the focus of many anti-obesity initiatives, vending machines in workplaces and public places have not received the same scrutiny - despite calls by some for removing them or changing their offerings.

That neglect may be changing as Santa Ana (Calif) joins other communities by approving an ordinance requiring vending machines to have at least half of their offerings be healthy ones. 

The trend of legislating what can be sold in vending machines started in high schools and has spread to municipal governments. San Jose passed a policy similar to the one proposed in Santa Ana. Chula Vista went a step further, mandating two months ago that its vending machines contain no junk food...A total of 23 city parks and community centers would be affected by the proposed policy. About a dozen more vending machines are at the library, train depot, City Hall, Police Department and public works yard.

If communities and national organizations are serious about the obesity problem in America, and believe that it is as much a problem for adults as it is for children and teens, this type of policy approach to improve public access to healthier food choices makes sense. However, convincing adults to 'deprive themselves' is a little trickier than 'just doing it' to the kids. As Stephen Dann might put it, the adults are more likely to point out "That's cheating!"

Then, of course, great tasting and satisfying food and beverage products have to be in them.

via Morning Coffee.

Technorati Tags: Obesity, Public Policy, Vending Machines

How to Stop Childhood Obesity

The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement published the results of statewide surveys that suggest that the increase in obesity among its public school children has been slowed, if not stopped, over the past three years.  Statewide participation rates for students having their Body Mass Index (BMI) measured with a standard protocol ranged between 90-95% over the past three years. Students who met the CDC criteria for overweight remained relatively stable over the 3-year period, declining slightly from 20.9% in the 2003-4 school year to 20.4% in 2005-6.  As participation rates were uniformly high and showed no apparent sampling bias, the conclusion of the investigators is that a comprehensive statewide policy initiative is being successful at halting the rise in prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents.

The report offers little information for those interested in what was responsible for achieving these results.  For that you will need to go to the article in this month's Health Affairs [abstract; full article with subscription only]. Here the authors document the process that went into forging the state's policy initiatives and collaborations, including the creation of a Child Health Advisory Committee (CHAC) to manage implementation of legislation targeting the school environment and to work with the Department of Education in developing and implementing standardized nutrition and physical activity requirements for all public schools - including the monitoring of children's BMIs.

Lessons learned from the Arkansas experience include:

1. Identify and coordinate existing related activities to develop and implement policy.
2. Provide clear intentions in legislation but leave the details to an independent body - such as the CHAC. [Note: the authors don't say this, but the CHAC provided an independent venue for reconciling health and education priorities rather than leaving it to the two agencies - Health and Education - to work out.]
3. Provide tools and technical assistance to schools in order to minimize costs and efforts to them for implementation.
4. Address privacy concerns when dealing with BMI assessments and reporting [an issue that generated substantial local and national media attention when it was being considered].
5. Collect and tailor data at the district and school level to document the obesity problem and sustain program viability in the first years of implementation.

No conclusions can be drawn about what are the most important features of the Arkansas approach. Yet, the experience does offer a road map for other states and policy makers who need to gain the involvement of many different sectors of society to create a comprehensive effort for slowing, if not halting, the rising prevalence of childhood obesity. If you have such aspirations, you may also want to read this Issue Brief from the National Governor's Association on Building Healthy Schools.

Technorati Tags: Arkansas, Childhood Obesity, Policy Intervention

Germany Explores Social Marketing

In an article in the July issue of Gesundheitswesen, Loss and coauthors examine the potential and limitations of using social marketing in health promotion programs in Germany. They note:

In Anglo-Saxon countries, the social marketing concept has achieved widespread application and is subject to controversial scientific discussions, whereas this approach is hardly considered in German health promotion research and practice. Given the increasing call for quality management and evaluation of health promotion interventions, the social marketing concept may contribute useful insights at an operational level and thus add to a discussion on effective approaches for programme planning.

One of the earlier looks at social marketing and health promotion was done by the investigators of the German Cardiovascular Prevention Project who consulted extensively with the US heart disease prevention trials in the mid-1980s. The concepts were best expressed in the attention to formative research, segmentation and process measurement, and significant changes in risk factors were reported for the study as a whole.

We'd like to hear more about how social marketing is evolving in Germany. German readers, or others who are familiar with the work, are encouraged to drop me a line or post some comments here.

Social Marketing in the News

Pakistani Sex Workers Fight AIDS 

These six female sex workers (FSWs), belonging to a community, especially vulnerable to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, have mobilised themselves and taken up social marketing of condom as one of their tasks.

They have not only begun to use them for prevention, but have convinced the women in their community that its use is not just for "preventing pregnancies" but helps protect them from sexually transmitted infections (STIs). And best of all, they have started stocking them up in their homes for easy access for the rest of the community and for free too.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: Physicians for Human Rights Analysis of Selected Issues

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) commends the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), recently released by Ambassador Randall Tobias, for outlining some important strategies, but believes the plan requires more funding, is weak on prevention and is short on details, especially on using generic drugs and recruiting and retaining health workers.

PHR’s chief concern is that the Plan fails to emphasize several of the most important prevention strategies for the general population, in particular comprehensive sex education and condom distribution…

The five-year plan fails to include condom distribution to the general population through social-marketing [sic] and other strategies, instead limiting condom distribution to groups traditionally considered as high-risk groups “those who are infected or who are unable to avoid high-risk behaviors.”

GMHC Ads Target Bkyln Black Women

The Women’s Institute of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) has launched a new AIDS awareness ad campaign for women of color in central Brooklyn [New York]. The image shows an illustration of three women; it reads, “AIDS. Protect yourself. Protect each other. We can help,” and includes contact information for GMHC…

“In Chelsea, where there is the highest incidence of HIV in the city, we do social marketing campaigns that target gay men.” Hill pointed out GMHC’s crystal meth campaign in that neighborhood.

“It’s much more than slapping up a poster on a billboard or side of a bus,” she said. “It’s about having a campaign target a community then having staff and peers who come from and are comfortable with that community to do the one-on-one work.”

Uganda: Drug Firms Now Selling Sickness

…By now almost anyone has been target of "informing messages" and disguised advertisement of medical solutions (a violation of the spirit of medical regulations and the Hippocratic Oath) that are on the increase.

Take a critical look and it gets apparent that they are part of a whole package - products of unorthodox marketing approaches: cause marketing, 'social marketing' or stakeholder 'education'. It is well thought out…

[“]Pharmaceutical companies are actively involved in sponsoring the definition of diseases and promoting them to both prescribes and consumers. The social construction of illness is being replaced by the corporate construction of disease."

Researchers Will Tap Into Freshman Drinking Myth

…Data from the study will be used to create social marketing and health advertising campaigns warning UF students of the consequences of high-risk drinking…

The new campaign will highlight short-term affects of excessive alcohol consumption like weight-gain, violence and poor academic performance, Dodd said.

"It's a much more targeted approach, and it's one aimed at their perceptions at what it means to be a student," she said.

Understanding Users of Virtual Worlds

Tristan Louis compiles a set of research studies and links as he pulls together what is known about the Characteristics of Virtual World Users. I have had a few posts here about the use of virtual worlds for immersive marketing experiences and their potential for new forms of entertainment-education.

This study notes that the users of these worlds are doubling in numbers in increasingly shorter periods of time - currently standing at 12 million and projected to reach 24 million within the next year. Second Life alone is reportedly growing at a 22% rate per month!

The average age of videogamers is 31 while those using virtual worlds are 26 years old. [Yes, remember that not all new technology and media users are the same.] Users also tend to be better educated and more affluent than the US population as a whole.

The data byte of interest to me is that the average user spends between 22-29 hours a week engaged in their virtual worlds. But before we go off on how they could 'more productively' be using that time - training for an ultra marathon perhaps? - the more immediate point is that these users' daily (virtual) reality are areas that deserve more attention. Research questions abound, and hopefully some enterprising students and faculty will help us understand and consider these virtual realities as we think about and conduct social marketing and social change programs.

via MicroPersuasion

Technorati Tags: Audience Research, Immersive Marketing, Videogamers, Virtual Worlds

Get Out to Vote

Tuesday marks (A) the beginning of the 2008 Presidential campaign, (B) the taking over of the Democratic Party by liberal bloggers, (C) the ascendancy of the anti-war movement as the major driver in election politics this year, (D) 91 days to the mid-term elections, or (E) whatever.

If you fall into the 'whatever' category, and know people who do, this campaign's for you.

The latest edition of the "Get Out the Vote" campaign by the Advertising Council is one of the better tongue planted firmly in the cheek campaigns I've seen done for civic engagement. Check out the site for information on how to register to vote, viral marketing ideas (including tee shirt transfers), fact sheets and backgrounders about the campaign. Candidate blogs and podcasts are under development. The site is designed (along with other materials) to increase voter behaviors among 18-24 year-olds and includes information on how to organize a voter registration drive. [The trick is to do it for one of the candidates on the site.]

Bobby Pearce, executive creative director of WestWayne..said the campaign’s ads deliberately mimic local candidates’ ads, popular in midterm elections, “where you hear the same phrases over and over again. These tend to generate indifference, they seem so formulaic. By parodying them, we’re combating the emotions they generate, the indifference, putting a little bit of spin on them.”

When asked 'how do I create a WOM campaign about my issue using social media,' I'll be suggesting looking at this one for ideas. And come November 7th, vote for the candidate of your choice unless you find a better one in your local elections: I'm favoring "Spoiled Yappy Dog."

Peers, school and workplace are the most effective influencers when it comes to engaging young adults age 18 to 24 in voting, volunteering or getting informed.

via Jane Levere, New York Times.

Technorati Tags: Ad Council, Civic Engagement, Get Out The Vote, Voter Behavior

Unbore Me!

"I feel bored like all the time, 'cause there is like nothing to do." Entertainment options may be increasing, but so is boredom. In the first installment of a week of coverage, the LA Times reports on their poll of 1,650 teens and young adults, members of the millennium generation, selected to be representative of US households. Multitasking and text messaging get their usual due, but on a different note -

When it comes to the content of their entertainment, those surveyed tended to be quite tolerant of violence, gross-out humor and swearing in movies.  Yet a surprisingly high number of teenage boys (58%) and even more teenage girls (74%) said they were offended by material they felt disrespected women and girls.

The findings also challenge several myths about this generation that have attained the stature of conventional wisdom among some web pundits:

Myth: More young adults cast ballots for "American Idol" than vote in political elections.
Truth: Only 21% of poll respondents ages 18 to 24 said they had voted for an "American Idol" contestant. But 53% said they had voted for a candidate for public office.

Myth: It's the rare teen who doesn't have a MySpace account these days.
Truth: More than half of teens ages 12 to 17 don't use social networking sites.

Technorati Tags: Audience Research, Entertainment, Millennial