Social marketers use a variety of health communication strategies such as mass and social media through interpersonal communication to reach out to the population to change their health behavior (Evans, 2006). One such exemplary campaign that utilized the social marketing framework is VERB: It’s what you do. In 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed this national, multi cultural, social media campaign to address the sedentary life style of young adults (CDC, 2010). The reason behind launching this campaign was the increased percentage of children and adolescents with obesity over the past 20 years. According to the recent studies, 5 out of 13 children between the ages of 9-13 do not participate in any physical activity
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The target audience associated that brand with activities that were motivational, interesting and cool. The campaign had a $339 million fund that helped in propagating the VERB’s messages to homes, schools and communities. VERB’s primary message vehicle for advertising was through paid television (TV) shows on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network that were quite popular with the tweens. Another prominent feature of the campaign was through the approach of integrated marketing so that the youth can benefit from direct marketing VERB website (VERBnow.com) (Huhman, 2008). On the website, the tweens viewed tutorials from celebrities like Venus Williams. Throughout the campaign, electronic media helped in facilitating the campaign’s approach by blogs and online discussion forums, which were reviewed by the CDC staff periodically (Huhman, 2008). VERB was created as an ethnically diverse campaign including African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and American Indians (CDC, 2011). Over all, VERB campaign was a success. The findings proved that after 1 year of the launch of the campaign, increased number of tweens were exercising and staying physically active particularly children between 9-10 years of age. By the end of 2006, there were 6,287,399 new visitors to VERBnow.com and 372, 565 were new users (CDC, 2011). The campaign concluded in 2006. The longevity of the plan could have been extended if there was a defined budget, an ongoing evaluation and refinement of the campaign. Also, VERB focused mostly on children to make rational health decisions. In most of the cases, parents, peers and social contacts influence children’s behavior. VERB campaign should have focused on the social aspect of the public health issue. Last but not the least, the VERB campaign did not address issues of poor neighborhood
The target audience associated that brand with activities that were motivational, interesting and cool. The campaign had a $339 million fund that helped in propagating the VERB’s messages to homes, schools and communities. VERB’s primary message vehicle for advertising was through paid television (TV) shows on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network that were quite popular with the tweens. Another prominent feature of the campaign was through the approach of integrated marketing so that the youth can benefit from direct marketing VERB website (VERBnow.com) (Huhman, 2008). On the website, the tweens viewed tutorials from celebrities like Venus Williams. Throughout the campaign, electronic media helped in facilitating the campaign’s approach by blogs and online discussion forums, which were reviewed by the CDC staff periodically (Huhman, 2008). VERB was created as an ethnically diverse campaign including African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and American Indians (CDC, 2011). Over all, VERB campaign was a success. The findings proved that after 1 year of the launch of the campaign, increased number of tweens were exercising and staying physically active particularly children between 9-10 years of age. By the end of 2006, there were 6,287,399 new visitors to VERBnow.com and 372, 565 were new users (CDC, 2011). The campaign concluded in 2006. The longevity of the plan could have been extended if there was a defined budget, an ongoing evaluation and refinement of the campaign. Also, VERB focused mostly on children to make rational health decisions. In most of the cases, parents, peers and social contacts influence children’s behavior. VERB campaign should have focused on the social aspect of the public health issue. Last but not the least, the VERB campaign did not address issues of poor neighborhood