Social Marketing Panorama

Way Cool Resource: USF Social Marketing in Public Health Conference

With this post I am bringing back an occasional feature, "Way Cool Resources," where I highlight a really cool (WAY COOL, ACTUALLY) social marketing-related resource.  This time--how could I resist?--it is the University of South Florida's Social Marketing in Public Health Conference!  And how appropriate as this is the 20th Anniversary of the conference (June 11-12, 2010).

I love this conference!  I have attended it for 12 years.  It has never grown stale.  There is always something new and different to learn each year. For me, it is like "God's navel," professionally; or the center of my professional universe!  I begin thinking about it in February or March, each year.

There is alway so very much to learn--through the plenaries, the featured speakers, and the workshops.  You can get the big picture of social marketing, down to very specific applications.  This year, there are additional workshop offerings.

And each year, there is a Training Academy (June 13-14, 2010) that will give you an in-depth introduction to social marketing.  I remember the first year I attended the Training Academy.  As I sat there listening to Carol Bryant (whom I call the Godmother of Social Marketing), I felt like the heavens opened and this big silver platter was presented to me with all these wonderful goodies on it!  I had heard at least two social marketing presentations before, and kind gone, "that's nice...so?" This time, the key went in, the lock turned, and the rest is history!

The conference is designed to provide a very comfortable atmosphere (note the flowered shirt above!) in which to network.  The conference is internationally attended, usually 300 - 400 people. They range from novices to the people who wrote the books--LITERALLY! Attendees come from public, private, academic and non-profit sectors. And while public health may predominate, you can find about any human service, safety or environmental issue you can imagine represented.  Folks are very friendly and willing to share.

Speaking of the people who wrote the books! This year being the 20th anniversary of the conference, Phil Kotler (the father of social marketing, with Gerald Zaltman), Alan Andreasen and Bill Novelli will keynote the speakers.  Hey, bring your autograph book!

So...beg, borrow or sale those Girl Scout cookies in the freezer, and direct you bad self to this conference! You--and the clients you serve--will be glad you did!  (And if you can't make it, I will be Tweeting from the conference each evening: http://twitter.com/sm1guru.)

Way Cool Resource: CDCynergy-Social Marketing Edition Planning Tool

This is the second post in an occasional series:  "Way Cool Resources."  I use these posts to highlight resources for doing social marketing that I have found to be especially helpful, creative and/or strongly evidenced based--in a word:  "Way Cool!"  (Okay, two words...)

CDCynergy-Social Marketing Edition ("CDCynergy-Soc" or "Cynergy-Soc" for short) is a CD ROM based planning tool to help you develop, implement and evaluate best practice social marketing plans.  The CD ROM has over 700 resources, including a tutorial to take you through the social marketing planning process, four best practice case studies, numerous templates, guidelines and examples in a PDF format, relevant journal articles saved as PDFs, video consultants who provide the art as well as the science of social marketing, even a "Social Marketing 101" slide show. As you make decisions about your plan, you can save them to your desktop in one of two pre-formated Word documents. It is like having your own, private social marketing consultant sitting on your desk!

Development.Cynergy-Soc was developed jointly by the Turning Point Social Marketing National Excellence Collaborative (SMNEC)-described in yesterday's post, the Academy for Educational Development(AED) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cynergy-Soc is based on the CDC's series of CD ROMs for conducting best practice health communication efforts. The partner organizations utilized the social marketing process to create Cynergy-Soc. First, twelve social marketing practitioners reviewed the communications version of CDCynergy to determine if a social marketing version could be created, using the original as a model.  SMNEC then conducted audience research with over 400 people nationally, representing public health stakeholders and potential users, to determine how they used social marketing and the desired characteristics of a planning tool.  Content. AED and the collaborative reviewed existing models of social marketing to synthesize a logic model.  AED wrote the content, developed case studies and identified other "on-board" resources. Technology. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), under contract with CDC, modified the computer architecture of the communication version of CDCynergy, and added the social marketing content.  Product Testing. The collaborative alpha-tested the new version with state and local public health personnel, and community based organizations, gathered by the Minnesota Social Marketing Collaborative.

Roll-Out. The collaborative rolled out the first edition of CDCynergy-Soc in August 2003 to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Turning Point grantee states, through APHA, the Georgetown Social Marketing List serve, and social marketing conferences in the in US and Canada.  The collaborative also created a media-on-demand web site where users can order a copy of the CD.  Audience research revealed that users would welcome support, in order to get the most out of the CD.  Therefore, the collaborative, in conjunction with AED and CDC, developed a user training, as well as a train-the-trainer training to insure continued dissemination of the user training.  Staff delivered multiple trainings to Turning Point states and regionally in the US, and at APHA and at the University of South Florida's Social Marketing in Public Health Conference. The collaborative also created three publications keyed to the phases and steps of CDCynergy-Soc.

Monitoring and Revision.  Being good social marketers, the partners monitored use of, and reaction to, CDCynergy-Soc, through on-going anecdotal feedback for three years, and through a formal survey of over 800 users in 2006. Based on this information, the partners made changes to content and added navigational and learning aids.  They also update the trainings.

Roll-Out of the Version II.  The collaborative rolled out CDCynergy-Social Marketing Edition, Version II in the summer of 2006, through the same venues as version one.  To date more than 10,500 copies have been distributed in 34 countries and in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the US! Users have utilized CDCynergy-Soc for program planning, grant writing and academic social marketing courses

Want your own copy of CDCynergy-Soc?!  You can order it from the media-on-demand web site.  You can also access the on-line version, and save resource documents and your plan to your own computer.  What if I have a Mac?  CDCynergy-Soc was quality controlled tested only on a PC.  Therefore, the creators can only vouch for its stability on a PC platform.  However, I know of several Mac users who regularly use CDCynergy-Soc without problems!

The target audience for CDCynergy-Soc are individuals and organizations that are already knowledgeable about social marketing.  It can also be helpful for users to have had an orientation to Cynergy-Soc, in order to make best use of the 700+ resources and planning aids.  If you want information on training and orientation opportunities, please contact me at sm1guru@yahoo.com!

Way Cool Resource: CDC's "Social Marketing for Physical Activity" Course

The post introduces a new occasional feature to the blog:  "Way Cool Resources."  I plan to use these posts to highlight resources for doing social marketing that I have found to be especially helpful, creative and/or strongly evidenced based--in a word:  "Way Cool!"  (Okay, two words.)

Last fall, CDC's Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity (DNPA) introduced a new on-line training resource:  their Social Marketing for Nutrition and Physical Activity Course.  The course is free of charge, and takes the learner through the phases of the social marketing process.  The interface is user-friendly, and beautifully designed. The site utilizes interactive scenarios with a fictional program planner named Rosa to help the user cement newly learned information.  People taking the course can receive continuing education credits. According to Jenny Kohr, the lead developer of the course, 300 people have registered for continuing education credits, and 100 completed the course.

I asked Jenny to tell me more about why and how DNPA created the course.  Here is her response:

"One of the things I’ve noticed about public health is that it’s easy to react to the crisis of the moment instead of determining the best and most effective long-term course of action. This is one of the reasons I became so intrigued with social marketing—if done well, it forces you to make plans and thoroughly understand the people you want to impact.

 

"In my time with CDC, several colleagues and I have provided guidance on the process of social marketing to professionals working in states and communities. Three observations led to the creation of the Social Marketing for Nutrition and Physical Activity course:

 

1. Need for assistance with planning:  Social marketing guidance usually morphed into guidance or help with planning skills (e.g., how to work with groups, how to get participation from partners, how to make decisions).  These weren't social marketing topics, but groups needed help with planning methods before they could begin to think about social marketing.

 

2. Common challenges:  There were some predictable challenges during the social marketing planning process.  People tended to have similar problems and common questions.

 

3. Inadequacy of current resources:  While accurate and valuable, current tools weren't necessarily practical or concrete enough for practitioners.  The tools did a great job of explaining the concepts of social marketing, but they fell short when people tried to implement them in the field.

"So we developed the Social Marketing for Nutrition and Physical Activity course. Along with instruction on the process of social marketing, the course provides ideas and tips for basic planning. It takes into account all of the common issues and challenges we heard over and over, and it’s designed to be as practical and concrete as possible.

 

"One feature that makes this course unique is our interactive scenario. If you take the course, you’ll meet Rosa in the first few pages. You get to follow her as she plans a social marketing program. She has to deal with challenges, such as a boss who isn’t inclined to think like a marketer and a planning committee member who is anxious for action. There are opportunities to offer your advice to Rosa, and we give you feedback on your choices.

 

"I hope this course can be something you use either to refresh your own skills or to recommend to people you interact with: a colleague, a partner, students, or someone else. I also hope this course becomes a way to not only help the field grow, but also encourage public health to take a step back, set aside the crisis of the moment, and consider where we’ve been and where we’re going."  (Disclaimers, From the CDC: "The findings and conclusions in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." From Mike: I reviewed the content of the course during development.)

 

Interested in the Course?  You may contact Jenny at enj5@cdc.gov.  Click this hyperlink to view the course.  CDC's Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity also has an excellent collection of other social marketing resources, including segmentation guides, case studies, and a social marketing guide for obesity prevention coordinators.