The power of video in behaviour change (and a shameless plug)

In the spirit of openness I must declare a massive personal interest in the project discussed in this post, having being the client who originally commissioned it, before then moving across to work for the agency who delivered it. Despite this, my actual involvement was limited, but it is a great behaviour change project that colleagues on both sides of my CV have taken great pride in – and rightly so!

The challenge for NHS Coventry was to turn the curve in declining young people, I think aged around 16-24, attending local dental provision. The PCT had seen a marked drop and as ever wanted to try some innovative approaches to tackling this growing problem. From this the Social Change team at ICE Creates developed the enigma that is Lady Go’Diva, a post-modern pop starlet to challenge Lady GaGa’s crown (well in the West Mids anyway!)

In the first month the video has seen more than 3,000 hits on You Tube, with a massive viral push planned around the university freshers season later this year. It was a brave move for the PCT dental team to embrace this approach, but one that could prove to be clearly in line with future thinking, as this piece from Cisco suggests, that by 2013 video content will represent 90% of all internet traffic, and 64% of all traffic will be on smart phones.

The portability of video content is also a great benefit for deployment in appropriate behaviour change programmes, as the ability for people to share and embed in blogs or via social media sites has massive potential for reach into networks and groups that traditionally have been inaccessible. I hope to be able to share some great results from this campaign over the coming months, and if the buzz generated so far is anything to go by, I expect to see Lady Go’Diva recording that difficult second single some time soon – I dread to think what treatment Chlamydia Screening could get!

To find out more about this campaign, check out Osocio’s recent post here. And not wanting to just focus on the great work by my current and former employers, I thought best to also share this great video casestudy (another great example of how to use the medium) on a different dental social marketing approach by NHS Kensington and Chelsea/Lamerton Swales.

Let’s get physical

The Government has published new physical activity guidelines this week informing the great British public what they should be aiming for each day, including under fives, who for the first time find their activity levels in the spotlight.

My experience from researching health and well-being issues within communities is that people don’t know what the recommendations are or even what constitutes ‘physical activity’ – let alone how to achieve these when time and money is often limited. The DH recommends minimum levels of activity by age group with adults expected to fit in a two and a half hours each week of ‘moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity’ – I am sure if stopped in the street, few people could accurately define this, and even worse could be put off doing any physical activity by the sheer fear of such exertion.

As a parent I am am relieved to see the clarification on waiting until your child is able to walk before implementing the guidelines, as I was worried how I will get my nine-month-old to do three hours of activity a day – although I am sure she tops three hours of wrestling at nappy time! But joking aside, many will struggle to see how they can change their behaviour to increase their physical activity in a meaningful way, but with the right nudges, public policies and appropriately targeted and co-created interventions it doesn’t need to be so. Physical activity behaviour change programmes have been a staple in the social marketing toolbox in recent years, with the popularity of Change4Life and a range of local projects – such as ICE Creates/NHS Coventry’s Big Pledge social marketing campaign which have firmly built up an evidence base for such interventions.

These, the DH suggest, should be encouraged across the population, with the latest evidence showing there is a clear link between physical activity and chronic disease. This is great context for those working in public health behaviour change, as guidelines alone do not result in sustained change. Whilst the new guidelines offer more flexibility for achieving the recommended levels of physical activity, creativity and insight-led, evidence-based solutions will need to be developed at both a local and national level to truly inspire people to be more active.

(Thanks for reading my first Behaviourchangereview blog!)