Entry Category
Program Entry – Overall Social Marketing
Name of Intervention/ Program
Vermont Department of Health, Eating Disorder Primary Prevention Campaign
Background and Situation Analysis
Eating disorders are pervasive in the state of Vermont and nationwide. Recent data showed troubling increases; according to Vermont hospital admissions data from 2016-2019, female patients ages 15 to 24 that required inpatient treatment for an eating disorder increased by 75%. The Vermont legislature created the Working Group on Services for Individuals with Eating Disorders; the workgroup committed to a public awareness campaign to raise awareness of eating disorders as well as protective factors to help prevent risks of disordered eating. MORE worked with the workgroup (Vermont Departments of Health and Mental Health) to assess protective factors for disordered eating. Healthy relationships with body image and food are key protective factors – ideas about which start to form at a very young age, often as young as preschool age. Parents/caregivers have a strong influence over healthy relationships with body image, food, and physical activity, including through the conversations youth are exposed to about diet, weight, food, and bodies.
Priority Audiences(s)
The priority audience for the social marketing campaign was parents/caregivers of children ages 3-10. Parents are uniquely positioned to have significant impact on protective factors for disordered eating. They are also invested in the wellbeing of their children, but they may be unaware of the influence they have in their child’s development of body image and relationship with food.
Behavioral Objectives
MORE conducted key informant interviews with a range of individuals in the health care, community-based organization, and eating disorder treatment and prevention and who worked with parents/caregivers and/or children ages 3-10. Among the key insights from the research were that parents/caregivers’ own experiences with body image and relationship with food strongly influences how they talk about these topics with their children. Children (and adults, too) are also faced with non-stop signals and messages from many channels that equate health to body size. Using these insights against a social marketing framework, MORE determined that signaling was more manageable than modeling behaviors around food and body image among parents/caregivers; shifting language about food (signaling) helps children learn that all bodies have value and acknowledges that parents/caregivers struggle, too. The objectives were as follows: Know: Ideas about bodies and food/eating develop in children at a very young age (3-5) Feel: Reassured that they don’t have to have it all figured out to have a positive influence on the development of those ideas Do: Shift their language about bodies and food. CTA: Learn how and get tips at the website.
Description of Strategy/Intervention
Key Opportunity MORE approaches campaign strategies by defining the key opportunity for the campaign. For this campaign, our key opportunity was to extend an invitation to parents/caregivers to leverage their influence on kids’ relationship with body image and food –without the pressure of getting it right all the time. Using a strengths-based approach, we encouraged our audience to learn how their language and conversations can make a difference in the ideas and beliefs their kids develop about bodies and food. Product Framework The core product was the positive influence over the ideas and beliefs their children were establishing about bodies and food. The actual product was the guidance on shifting language delivered as teasers and then provided for free via talking points and message guide/toolkits on the campaign website (HealthVermont.gov/ConfidentKids)
Implementation
This campaign leveraged paid, shared, owned, and earned channels for multi-touch engagement. The paid media plan included digital display, Meta social channels, YouTube, Reddit, and Pinterest, a local parent online magazine and e-blast Seven Days, targeted email, community-based posters in businesses, and transit ads. Campaign materials were also distributed through community partners, including YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, pediatric health care centers, after-school program networks, and more.
Evaluation Methods and Results
The campaign drove significant engagement with the campaign webpage and resources (over 14,000 clicks), driven by strong click-through-rates on multiple channels, above industry benchmarks. The targeted email push resulted in an 18% open rate, double industry average. Hundreds of campaign one-sheets were distributed by partner organizations.
Entry Number: 08