DoH ad strategy requires 'fundamental' changes

by David Tiltman, Marketing 05-Jul-06

The Department of Health (DoH) has been told it must fundamentally overhaul its marketing if it is to meet its public-health goals.

A report by the National Social Marketing Centre, commissioned by the
DoH, has proposed sweeping changes to the department's communications.
These would have far-reaching implications for the way the government

tackles issues such as obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse.

The report claimed the DoH takes a short-term approach to marketing and
is insufficiently focused on the consumer. It also argued that based on
current marketing activity and spend, the government would struggle to
meet the targets of the 'Choosing Health' White Paper.

Key proposals outlined in the report include a shift of focus onto
long-term strategies to change behaviour, and the development of more
partnerships with the private sector to help deliver targets.

Last week it emerged that the DoH is in talks with Sainsbury's about a
joint campaign starring Jamie Oliver aimed at encouraging families to
eat together.

Other recommendations in the report include the implementation of
greater co-ordination across DoH activities, and of consumer-behaviour
measures to assess the success of campaigns. It also suggested that the
COI set up a dedicated social marketing roster.

The DoH said the report was 'useful' and that the recommendations would
be applied to future activity. 'We commissioned the report because we
recognised we needed to change the way we run our campaigns,' said a
spokeswoman.