2P Promotion Tactics

Develop active living messages and an awareness campaign based on targeted community research (focus groups, surveys, and testing).

One message or program cannot reach all community members.  Thus, promotion efforts should target a variety of different groups within the community.  To identify groups, try to find similarities that might affect each group's perceptions of Active Living messages.  Such similarities might include knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors related to Active Living, general passions, habits and interests, or even demographics.  Useful information may come from sources such as reports and studies, or may come directly from the community through focus groups, in-depth interviews, central location intercept interviews, and surveys.  Identifying different segments of the community can lead to program strategies and creative messages that directly address specific needs or wants in the community.  For example, if an assessment reveals that some community members lack confidence to be regularly physically active, a promotion strategy might emphasize simple and achievable activities, and might also provide a venue for individuals to try physical activity.  Understanding the values within a community will increase the chances that active lifestyles will take root within a community.

Inform official local leaders about your partnership through meetings, publications and onsite visits.

Informing and ultimately gaining support from local leaders furthers a promotion campaign in important ways.  Official leaders may have contact with the citizens who are seen as informal leaders.  Informal leaders often hold respect and influence within their communities.  Support from both formal and informal leaders lay leaders may in turn generate broad community interest in active living.  In other words, local officials can help forge the connections necessary to get Active Living messages across to the target audiences.

Become a resource for the media and community on active living issues.

Stories that directly affect a local audience, stimulate debate, or provide fresh angles to capture public attention always attract media outlets.  Active Living programs and stories related to health, planning, and transportation can meet all of these criteria, while local media coverage can sustain publicity for your partnership's Active Living initiatives.  Cultivate this win-win relationship by getting to know the media in your area.  Increase your partnership's credibility by having accurate resources readily available.  An effective public awareness strategy should provide strong messages, supportive facts, and local case studies of how communities have used parks, trails and greenways to support physical activity.  Be armed with good story ideas that can present the "human side" of Active Living principles—a community member who recently lowered his or her blood pressure by walking to work, for example.  Additionally, collect reports, studies and publications that clearly and consistently make the case for creating compacted, mixed-use walkable communities.  With some preparation on your part, the media can help to effectively disseminate the Active Living message.

Educate editorial boards and media outlets about ways of encouraging active living.

Draft letters to the editor supporting community designs, land use and transportation policies conducive to active living. Work with reporters to place articles and features on active living in the local newspaper.  Reports and studies can also be helpful in crafting articles and editorials when national statistics are tied to the issue using local data.  The goal is to engage the community by stimulating discussion through established media channels.  Ultimately, the increase in community-wide discussion can prompt boards, elected officials and leaders to devote attention to the policies, programs, or physical projects that would increase the opportunities for walking and biking in a community.

Conduct and participate in community events that can educate the public and media about active living.

Organized events can draw public attention to Active Living and related land use and transportation issues in two important ways.  First, the event itself can become a unique, interactive and fun way to educate the community about the benefits of active living.  Additionally, community events can draw local media coverage, or "earned media."  The benefits include increased reach of the Active Living message, free print or air time, reader/viewer credibility, and an audience with policy makers, who are often tuned in to local media.  The goal is to keep the buzz going even after the event is over.

Create community wide campaigns with your messages via television, radio, newspapers, outdoor advertising, the Internet and mailings.

Conduct promotional campaigns to advocate for individual lifestyle and policy changes that support Active Living.  To build awareness and motivate people to take action, a target audience must see, hear or read about the active living message repeatedly in a variety of places over time.  Additionally, integrating a logo or slogan into the campaign can help to "brand" the Active Living concept, making it familiar throughout the community.  Ultimately, a broad base of community interest will generate greater community participation in formulating the types of local goals and policy changes likely to generate more opportunities for Active Living.

Partner with local organizations to utilize their communications channels (e.g. newsletters, bulletin boards, websites and listservs) to promote active living.

Working with other organizations can significantly expand the reach and credibility of your initiative.  Partnership opportunity may exist with employers, schools and faith-based organizations, as well as local transportation, planning, and recreation-related authorities.  Before approaching potential partners, identify and be prepared to discuss how they might benefit from Active Living initiatives such as promoting parks, community centers and active forms of routine transportation.  A win-win relationship will lead to a high degree of cooperation between organizations, increasing the chances that the right messages will reach the right people at the right time.

Install point-of-decision prompts and cues to action in and around public and private places to promote physical activity.

Point-of-decision prompts are signs in specific locations, such as elevators and escalators that encourage individuals to take the active option (i.e., the stairs) at that moment in time, and may offer information about the health benefits of that action.  For these prompts to work, buildings must be designed to make the stairways as safe, accessible and appealing as elevators and escalators.   These prompts should be located in a variety of areas that receive high volumes of pedestrian traffic, including public and private buildings and malls, where individuals have the option of making the physically active choice.

Provide public recognition for developers, designers and local governments that demonstrate good practices.

Unless Active Living principles are incorporated in master plans, ordinances and design guidelines, there is little likelihood that Active landscapes will flourish in U.S. cities and towns.  An awards program can increase planners' knowledge of best practices and lend credibility to innovate planning solutions.  Familiarity with best practices can prevent the impression among planners and designers that promising solutions are infeasible or too costly when the opposite may be true.  Additionally, the public recognition generated by an award can motivate developers and others to take on the risk of implementing new technologies, making Active Living practices more widely used and embraced forms of community development.