European Youth Tackling Obesity Young people leading behaviour 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
Challenge yourself to get active + try new healthier foods
Spain
Czech Republic
Portugal
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 approaches Of 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 /