Change4Life: Using marketing to change behaviours

Alison Hardy Director, Headstrong Thinking

The Change4Life social marketing programme

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Agenda

• Overview of Change4Life

• Change4Life and physical activity

• Using Change4Life at a local level

• Evidence of change

Overview of Change4Life

Why the programme is necessary UK Foresight report: By 2050, 60% of men and 50% of women

could be clinically obese • Health impact of obesity: – 58% type-2 diabetes – 21% of heart disease – 10% of non-smoking related cancers – 9,000 premature deaths a year in

England – Reduces life expectancy by 9-11 years.

• Costs of obesity:

– National Health Service - £4.2bn – Wider economy - £15.8bn – Foresight estimate costs to economy

of £50bn by 2050

How the programme was designed

• Obesity is a societal problem and requires a societal response

• The programme was designed to galvanise and coordinate efforts across society

• The programme is “open source”: no one has to use it and those who do, have a lot of latitude in how they use it

How the programme has evolved

2008/9 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13

37% of families with children under 11

Further 27% of families with children under 11

1.6 m parents of 0-2s

10 m adults in mid-life

700k Pregnant women

Change4Life and Physical Activity

Insights into physical activity

• Children often encouraged to be sedentary

• Parents believed their children were already active enough

• Many parents were reluctant to exercise themselves

• Children wanted to be more active…

• …but parents saw barriers

“I don’t want her playing outside. I’ve seen what it’s like. There are older kids who are into drinking, drugs and sex. I don’t want her outside with all that.” (Mother, Newcastle)

How our product has evolved

Mass communication

How our product has evolved

Tools

How our product has evolved

Partner activity

How our product has evolved

Participation

How our product has evolved

Digital tools and social media

How our product has evolved

Platforms

Using Change4Life locally

Accessing Resources

• Downloadable resources can be accessed at http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/pages/resource-casestudy.aspx

• Hard copy material can be ordered free, from the DH orderline

• Priority in the future will be to provide resources digitally

• Monthly newsletter goes to local supporters alerting them to campaigns and including links to relevant partner activity such as info about national PlayDay, national walking month, Bike Week etc. Brand guidelines are available to supporters so you can co brand any locally produced items with Change4Life.

• You can sign up here: http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Supporters-Registration/Pages/Registration.aspx

Applying Change4Life locally

Evidence of change

General impact on physical activity

• Ethnographic research conducted in 2010 found: – Evidence of a societal movement for healthier lifestyles, including substantial change to

beliefs about what constitutes good parenting. Change4Life was seen as one instigator of this movement

– Target parents now aspire to have a healthy as well as a happy child, and the definition of healthy has evolved to include preventative measures such as physical activity

– Children (and schools) are acknowledged as important change-makers within the family unit, although also evidence of parents modelling poor behaviours

– Many parents have tried to implement change, and among some families there is evidence of these changes becoming normalised

– However, the research provided a timely reminder that behaviour change is hard. Some parents had tried to implement healthier lifestyles, failed, and then rejected the concept as too difficult. Others in the study struggled to sustain change, particularly in the face of an adverse environment.

Source: 2CV (quoted in Change4Life new three year strategy, DH, 2011)

Change4Life sports clubs

• Started with 3,000 secondary clubs

– Delivering 80,000 sport sessions – Training 4,000 coaches and 8,000

young leaders – 61,000 children taking part – Increase of 166% in “non sporty”

young people choosing to play sport every week

– Increase of 89% in “non sporty” young people having a positive attitude to sport

• Expanded to include 4,500 clubs in primary school

(Source: SPEAR, Canterbury Christ Church University)

Games4Life

• Over 250,000 personalised activity plans have been issued

• 80,000 signed-up to receive the six week follow-up email programme

• 96% of those who had received a personalised activity plan had read some or all of them

• 66% of parents and 60% of adults who took part in Games4Life say they have used at least one of their activity plan suggestions

• 88% of schools had either done or intended to so some activity as a result of their involvement

Physical activity and social media

• Twitter strong on local supporter engagement

• Facebook delivers reach and frequency:

– 134,454 likes – With the potential to reach

21,641,755 friends – Typically, posts reach 6,000-

20,000 people – Highest ever reach achieved

during the Olympics (2,000+ likes reaching c. 300,000 friends)

– Engagement around physical activity less strong than diet but stronger than alcohol

The Future

• 2011-14 Change4Life strategy available at http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_130488.pdf

• Change4Life school sports clubs will expand to 10,500 primary school clubs by 2015

• Walking continues to be promoted as a key C4L healthy lifestyle behaviour and an easy way to achieve the activity guidelines and will be promoted under the Get Going behaviour.

• Resources can be accessed from the local supporter part of the website at http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/pages/resource-casestudy.aspx

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Thank you

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