Social Marketing in the News

 

Oil Company Boosts Anti-malaria Campaign in Cameroon

 

Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (COTCO) has decided to give a subsidy of 175 million FCFA to help lower the cost of insecticide-treated mosquito nets… COTCO proposed the project for the promotion and distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and its kit all over Cameroon, which [is] funded by the Exxon Mobil Foundation. The Cameroonian Social Marketing Association (ACMS) is the project`s executing agency.   …Cameroon`s ACMS, which was created in 1989, is engaged in the prevention of malaria and HIV/AIDS, family planning and in fighting diarrhoeic and water-borne diseases.

 

 

UNESCO-funded ‘Shahi Qila Week’ Begins on January 22

 

A five-day ‘Shahi Qila Week’ funded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is scheduled at Lahore Fort [Pakistan] from January 22 to January 26, Punjab Archaeology Department (PAD) sources told Daily Times on Monday.

The cultural mega-event aims to impart awareness about the World Heritage site and is the first of its kind organised by the PAD.

 

The details of the event were worked out in a meeting held at PAD’s office on Monday, in which Cultural Officer Farhat Gul represented UNESCO...The meeting discussed various aspects of social marketing and promotion of archaeological sites and was informed that PAD Director General Oriya Jan Maqbool took the initiative.

 

 

Town Unveils Conservation Resource Library

 

The Town of Cochrane [Alberta, Canada] unveiled the first Conservation Resource Library Tuesday, located in a section of the Nan Boothby Memorial Library.

“The primary purpose of creating and maintaining the Conservation Resource Library is to provide Cochrane residents with greater access to resources about how to be better stewards of our environment,” said Lisa Fox, Water Conservation Coordinator for the Town.

 

The library is part of the community-based social marketing strategy the Conservation Team is focusing on.

“It includes face to face marketing, which was the door-knocking, broad-base marketing, which we do through the newspapers and releases, and hands-on, the library,” Fox said.

 

 

More News and Commentary is posted at On Social Marketing and Social Change.

 

Recent notes include: Social Marketing and the Policy Maker Audience; The Red Herring of Self Esteem?; and Fast Company's 2006 Social Capitalist Award Winners. 

 

 

Social Marketing in the News

 

DPH Overrides STD Funding Cuts

 

Coming back to work after the long holiday weekend, several local [San Francisco, CA] agencies with contracts from the city's STD control branch received a New Year's surprise: their funding would be unexpectedly reduced. Magnet, the gay men's community health center in the Castro, the AIDS Health Project, and the Public Health Foundation received word on Tuesday, January 3, that Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, director of the STD control branch, was reducing their funding this year due to budget constraints.

 

Yet only hours after Klausner had confirmed he was cutting a total of $118,000 in funding, health department officials informed the Bay Area Reporter that in fact none of the programs would receive cuts.

 

One agency, the Internet Sexuality Information Services, learned it would be flat funded, at $49,000, and another agency, Better World Advertising, learned its funding doubled this year to $85,000. Klausner said the increase is to fund a new STD social marketing campaign.

 

 

Conservation Agency Promises to Break New Ground

 

New Brunswick appears to have a monopoly on good ideas by taking real action on energy costs. The newly minted Energy Efficiency and Conservation Agency of New Brunswick is unique, a first for Canada, with a mandate to influence efficient energy use, help control energy expenses and lessen the impact of energy use on the environment.

 

Part of the agency's communication challenge, therefore, is to ensure the many benefits of energy conservation actions are identified and well understood.

"Our task is to make those benefits apparent to the province's residents and industry, and to capture public attention to create a common understanding that we can make and must make better choices about how we use energy," said  [CEO Elizabeth] Weir in a recent speech to the Energy Council of Canada.

 

She realizes that getting the conservation messages out will be a challenge. Changing consumer behaviour through social marketing efforts is an even steeper hill to climb. She stresses that a sustained effort in a small jurisdiction can prove effective.

Weir notes that 'we have been able to change individual behaviour in profound ways, such as curbing tobacco use, and making seatbelt use an automatic part of driving.' But these behaviours, now embedded in our lifestyles, did not happen overnight. The Agency must have staying power and the ability to deliver messages that resonate.

 

 

Crystal Task Force Set to Vote on Plan

 

A city panel charged with addressing San Francisco's crystal methamphetamine epidemic is expected to include providing treatment on demand and creating a marketing campaign alerting speed users that treatment does work among the recommendations it is set to approve next week.

 

Also included in the draft proposal are new social marketing campaigns for meth users, expansion of specific services for youth, an update on the current status of the epidemic, and working with law enforcement officials to target dealers of the drug.

 

 

Charitable Organisations Seek a Better 2006

 

A drying up of sponsorship for voluntary organisations has left many wondering how best to reverse this disturbing trend in 2006.

 

Beverly Stewart, finance mobiliser for the [Jamaican] Council of Voluntary Social Services and the Inter-American Development Project, has identified "social marketing", as the primary approach to solving the problem. Voluntary organisations, she said, "have to realise that they are engaged in a business, and they are actually competing for sponsorships." She suggested several strategies that non-profit organisations could employ.

 

Among other things, she believes that it is important for NGO's convince private businesses that they will exhibit fiduciary responsibility. "Getting large corporations to invest in voluntary ventures becomes easy when they are affiliated with reputable NGO's that they allow to monitor these investments for them", she advises.

 

According to Mrs. Stewart, it is also important that corporate sponsors are able to see how they will benefit, whether directly or indirectly, from their donations. She is therefore encouraging NGO's to "Go all-out by writing project proposals for all ventures even if they are small and preparing strategic methods of pleasing specific target markets."

Canada Targets Health Promotion

Canada has set its sights on becoming one of the healthiest countries in the world, following a CAN$300m (£150m, 212m euro, US$260m) investment in health promotion over the next five years.

 

Through the strategy, the Canadian government is contributing CAN$56m (£28m, 40m euro, US$48m) to a healthy-living strategy. This will include a Healthy Living Fund, which will make investments at national, regional and local levels to support health promotion initiatives.

 

It will also include a social marketing campaign that aims to motivate Canadians to eat healthy food and to be more physically active. The campaign will focus on the importance of including these actions in daily life and will show how making small steps can lead to significant health improvements.

  

 

Vance Grant Supports Hub

 

In other business [of the Vance County, North Carolina, Commissioners], the results of a focus group on the health of African-Americans was discussed by Jackie Sergent of the Granville-Vance District Health Department.  The study addresses obesity in African-American, American Indian and Hispanic youths, ages 5-11, and their families in Lee, Johnston and Vance counties.

 

Sergent said it uses social marketing to increase daily physical activity to 60 minutes or more, and decrease television viewing in targeted youths.  She defined social marketing as using commercial marketing strategies to change behavior.

 

The study aims to implement culturally appropriate interventions tailored to each target audience. [Among the findings from the research that were reported at the meeting]

 

In the case of communitywide interventions:

• Neighborhood watch programs, or other programs cooperating with local law enforcement programs, may help provide needed and desired security for children playing outside.
• Communitywide efforts to control traffic in residential areas are needed.
• Neighborhoods should be assessed for adequate sidewalks and lighting.

More Social Marketing News and Commentary Can Be Found At On Social Marketing and Social Change.