I am looking for examples of social marketing initiatives and projects which focus on increasing the uptake of physical exercise among 16-25 year olds, with a particular focus on college and university students. I am trying to show that there are other ways - more effective than the traditional information-driven approach - of engaging with the target audience and encouraging behaviour change.
Janet MacDonald
United Kingdom
Social Marketing to Increase Physical Exercise
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Janet, here is a general observation rather than a specific study: the 16-25 year olds are heavily engaged in texting, Twittering, Facebook and other social media. Their large amount of 'screen-time' contributes to their very lack of exercise, but is also, I'd wager, the right medium through which to get their attention onto a campaign for increased activity. I think they ignore traditional media, even including online versions of newspapers.
Just my two cents. I want to read up on Participaction to learn what Doug came up with on this.
Alison Wiley
Oregon Dept Transportation
United States
The Ride to Work program was succesful in engaging this age group with physical activity by encouraging competition between the tertiary organisations . Organsiations with the greatest participation were incentivised and rewarded. Results were strong and sustained year on year.
lucy allinson
advisor
LESS
Australia
...
The iconic example of this was Participaction, a Canada-wide program to increase physical activity in all age groups of the population. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, our social marketing guru, has written it up in his books ...
Bev Suderman
Land Use Planner
Canada