Fishburn Hedges

11.05.2011

The Department of Health has just announced a dramatic turnaround as it plans to put £14m into marketing and communications for the Change4Life campaign.

Change4Life has seen a 80% fall in the number of people joining the scheme since the Coalition’s freeze on ‘non-essential’ marketing came into effect.  This statistic and the Government’s decision to reinvest in the campaign - which now encompasses Drinkaware, Smokefree and health initiatives targeting ‘young people’ and ‘older people’ –demonstrates just how ‘essential’ the media can be in affecting healthy behaviour.

With this commitment from the Department of Health, comes further pressure to deliver tangible results from the money it spends on marketing.  This presents a new challenge to anyone working in healthcare communications -  it can be difficult enough to accurately determine if an audience has engaged with a campaign, now it will be vital (and rightly so) to demonstrate a substantive link between communications and an individual’s move towards healthier behaviour.

This will lead to an exciting time in healthcare communications where the emphasis will be firmly on starting with the individual and their behaviour.  The Government has already alluded to this with their decision to use different channels for different social groups.  Campaigns for ‘young people’ will centre around social media, and there are plans to group all healthcare initiatives aimed at ‘older people’ under one, easily recognisable umbrella which will be NHS branded.

This declaration from the Department of Health is a positive signal, demonstrating that the Coalition recognises the influence of the media on an individual’s propensity to act healthily.  However, this is a healthcare system which must answer for every penny it spends and the communications industry must react to this.  The challenge is for us to show an exhaustive understanding of audiences, their behaviour and their networks, in order to promote authentic change…4Life.

Posted by Rose Beynon