European Youth Tackling Obesity
Young people leadingbehaviour change: A social marketing approach to encourage healthy lifestyles
► 22 million children in the EU are overweight or obese
► Affects around a third of children and young people in the UK
► It’s a public health time bomb
► It’s a major health inequality
The problem
► Window of opportunity
► Historically hasn’t been given enough attention
► Great promise in using proven techniques
The teenage years
► Look at what’s missing
o Ecological approach
o Target young people most at risk
o Local level approach
o Young People’s participation
o Realising the potential of social marketing
A new approach
What is social marketing?
► Approach to develop activities which are aimed at changing or maintaining people’s behaviour for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole
► Behaviour► Audience► Theory► Insight► Exchange► Competition► Segmentation► Mix
► Learn more about what works
► Apply this learning to develop new campaigns to get young people to eat better, move more
► Develop the evidence base and support the wider replication of good practice
A youth led social marketing approach to encourage healthy lifestyles
► England, Spain, Czech Republic and Portugal ► Project teams of appropriate expertise► Reviews of the learning form past and present work► Recruit Young Campaign Creators► Develop and launch campaigns across local communities
► Host exchanges for sharing learning► Evaluating the impact of campaigns on peers and
stakeholders, and impact of engagement on Young Campaign Creators
► Launch pan-European campaign messages, associated tools and resources
► Disseminate the learning
► Challenges of engaging young people with more complex lives
► Routes to engagement
► Grounding in their lives
► Giving them creative control
► Making sure we understand what they want to get out of it
► Checking back on their personal development
► Showing them how they're influencing peers
Making ‘peer- led’ work
Interim evaluation findings - 1
Perceptions of obesity among young people“I have always thought about healthy lifestyles only in one way how to lose weight. Now I see that it’s more complex. It’s also about your motivation, about your emotions and your whole life”
► Internal, emotional factors
► Top three challenges – lack of motivation, willpower and lack of enjoyment of exercise.
► Complex combination of factors enabling healthy living
Interim evaluation findings - 2
The power of social marketing approachesOf the young people responding to our surveys: ► 88% felt that the campaigns were effective in encouraging
young people to eat more healthily and be more active
► 83% felt that the campaigns were effective in motivating and showing young people how to eat more healthily and be more active
► 90% felt that the campaigns were effective in communicating why this is important
► 96% had discussed the campaign, thought about making a lifestyle change, or tried to find out more
Interim evaluation findings - 3
Supporting successful youth-led work► Develop a bespoke approach to involving young people
► Taking time and context into account
► Bringing people together
► Managing content creation
► Co-production
► Ecological approach
► Skills and confidence
► Coordinated approach
Co-production; developing skills and confidence, coordinated local approach
Lessons learnt...
►How to support successful youth led work
► Learning to loose control
► Cultural differences but same underlying messages
► Social marketing works
What’s next...
► Pulling all together under one umbrella
►Final evaluation reporting
►Disseminating pan European messages, tools and resources
► Model for achieving behaviour change with adolescents
► All kinds of additional benefits, including:
Young people developing skills and confidence
Potential for more coordinated approach at a local level
► Addressing other Public Health issues
Potential for replication
Amy Davies: Senior Development Officer - Health and Social Care, NCB
[email protected] / 07850 926 988
www.ncb.org.uk/eyto