Creation of an Implementation Plan for a Mindful Mondays Campaign at Emerson College

Created by Margaret Sheets as an “Applied Learning Experience” Final Master’s Thesis Project

What is an Applied Learning Experience Project?

Project that students in Emerson College’s Health Communication Program must complete to receive a Master’s degree in Health Communication

Students and are hired as pro bono consultants to work on health related projects for business/ organizations/ schools etc

Based on extensive quantitative and qualitative research a “deliverable” is made by each Master’s candidate

For this project I worked as a consultant for Emerson College’s Center for Health and Wellness to assist them by creating an implementation plan for a future health promotion campaign geared towards Emerson undergraduate students. The plan was based off the pre-existing Healthy Monday Campaign

Healthy Monday Campaign

Healthy Monday Campaign (national campaign)

Initiated by Syracuse, Johns Hopkins & Columbia Universities in 2005

Idea: promote behavior change on Mondays

Monday is first day of business week –good day to start

Promotes behavior change that is fairly easy to accomplish: Meatless Monday

Mindful Mondays

Based off of LiveSMART (Live Strongly Mindfully, Actively, Responsibly and Thoughtfully) 5 Day Campaign initiated by Emerson College.

Mindful Mondays is a change for the college because it’s a longer 9 week campaign

Primary Research Conducted Zoomerang survey 502

respondents 2 Focus groups 15 participants total Asked questions about students

preference:Behaviors they want to learn aboutCommunication sourcesInformation SourcesHealth Information SourcesPreferred healthcare activities

Focus Group/Survey Results

Students very interested in Relaxation, Nutrition and Fitness-yoga

Very interested in technology-text messaging

Liked fun health events

Lacked knowledge of on campus services

Emerson DemographicsDemographic Category Percentage

Total Number of Undergraduate Students

3,453

Gender

Male 40%

Female 60%

Ethnicity

International (non-resident aliens)

3.6%

Black, Non-Hispanic 4.4%

Asian/Pacific Islander 5.5%

Hispanic 10.0%

White, Non-Hispanic 49.4.2%

Multiracial 3.6%

Race Unknown, not reported

25.2%

Like film/video production

Don’t like being talked down to

Interested in health issues

Like looking young healthy

What Other Schools have Done

Emerson’s past efforts What other colleges have done to

implement the Healthy Monday Campaign were also examined –focus on:SyracuseJohns HopkinsWest Chester UniversityNorthern Kentucky UniversitySuffolk UniversityTulane University

Deliverable

Nutrition, Relaxation Strategies, Fitness targeted

Guidebook for future Wellness Ambassadors Student group

Involved Samples:

Design for a website 3Posters to post in dorm halls about health issues 6 text messages (2 about each target behavior) 3 scripts for student made videos

Logo

This logo was disliked when tested by Emerson students, consequently the logo above was chosen for the campaign

Website Design

Sample Text Messages

Video Scripts Short scripts Nutrition

2 Wellness Ambassadors in Dining hall Explain how to create healthy meals there

FitnessWellness Ambassadors explain how to

exercise in dorms

Relaxation2 students demonstrate relaxation

techniques

Budget

According to the social Marketing Model Budgets must include: draft product, benefits

and features price incentives,

distribution channels, proposed promotions

Campaign’s evaluation (Kotler & Lee, 2008, p. 43).