Partnering for Success – Combining Social Responsibility and Communications Expertise with Retail, Non-Profit and Media Partners to Promote Healthy Life Choices

Background:  Health Canada has an illustrious history of developing innovative partnerships with industry, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, media, and other levels of government to raise awareness and increase knowledge of important health issues and motivate Canadians to adopt healthy behaviors. Partnerships have been an integral part of social marketing at Health Canada since the 1970s, and hundreds of alliances have been established to support three areas: Emerging and Communicable Disease Prevention (e.g. H1N1), Critical Disease or Health Risk Prevention (e.g. diabetes,), and Long-Term Health Promotion (e.g. nutrition).   No two partnerships are alike and the types of partnership models Health Canada develops are equally distinct. Three unique partnership models – retail, non-profit, and media – will be explored and will highlight the breadth and reach of collaborations and how mutually-beneficial relationships help sustain positive outcomes and influence healthy behaviours.

Program background:  The Safe Food Handling campaign targeting pregnant women is a successful partnership with the leading maternity retailer in Canada, Thyme Maternity.  Collaboration on in-store, web, and social media activities has brought attention to the importance of food safety to expectant mothers and helped to engage them on ways to stay healthy – and protect their unborn child. The successful partnership between Health Canada and the Canadian Cancer Society on the Break It Off tobacco cessation campaign targeting young adults shows how working together can revive and extend the life of a campaign, build on successes, and capitalize on each other’s strengths. Partnering with media giants – Corus, Bell Media, Transcontinental and AOL – has proven to be a successful model for Health Canada’s Eat Well campaign.  Engaging millions of Canadians with inspiring content about healthy eating through television, magazines, web and social media has been a sustained effort between partners, and results have been beneficial for all parties. 

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Each partnership is unique and the evaluation methods used to identify positive outcomes are distinct.  Methods are developed based on a number of factors including the availability of data, resources, timing, and campaign objectives.  The session will explore how public opinion research and online surveys helped shaped campaign messaging, positioning and creatives for each campaign.  Other metrics including resource uptake, social media engagement, web metrics, and online advertising evaluation will be used to provide insight into the adoption of healthy life choices.

Conclusions:  Eat Well campaign results indicated there was an overall positive effect on attitudes towards healthy eating and the intent to change eating behaviors.   Recollection of campaign messaging ranged from 44-57% and 37% of those respondents indicated that they intended to change their eating and shopping behaviours because of campaign messaging.   

Implications for research and/or practice:  Exploring collaborative opportunities with various types of partners enables Health Canada to strengthen the breadth of health promotion activities that maintain and improve the health of Canadians. While each partnership is unique, each one is developed based on a history of best practices and lessons learned that provide a baseline from which innovation and creative campaigns emerge.