Take a look at last year’s winners to help you put together a winning entry

2009 Winner - Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust

Gym for Free was a joint Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT and Birmingham City Council initiative designed to tackle obesity and encourage regular exercise across communities troubled by deprivation. With many people prevented from participating in physical activity due to costs, the PCT secured free access to the council’s leisure facilities for all its 300,000 or so residents.

The scheme soon attracted 33,000 members, with one woman losing eight stone. In September 2009, thanks to large take-up rates, evidence of success and wider stakeholder support, the scheme was extended across Birmingham’s three primary care trusts. Since then 96,000 people have signed up to free fitness sessions.

“This was a real partnership in action approach to an innovative access scheme,” says trust director of communications and public affairs Lynda Scott. “Although it’s still early days, we are starting to see results.”

“The awards are a tremendous recognition of personal effort in the pursuit of public service across our organisation,” says trust chair Ranjit Sondhi. “They also emphasise the necessity of innovation at a time when we need to do more for less.”

As well as the Social Marketing prize, the project also picked up the overall Secretary of State’s Award. Then health secretary Andy Burnham applauded the “innovative, city-wide approach, demonstrating fantastic results that are making a real impact on the lives of a significant number of people [and that] embodies the culture change required to create a preventative NHS which includes promotion of physical activity in its core business.”

Enter now

What judges want

Essential:

  • Focusing on a behavioural goal with your target audience
  • Using customer insight to drive your project
  • Demonstrating measurable behavioural outcomes (or a framework and indicators of successful development)

Desirable:

  • Using social behaviour theory to inform your approach
  • Targeting your audience
  • Developing partnerships to engage your audience
  • Using integrated marketing tools
  • Evidence of sustainability - proving the behaviour influenced or the partnerships created will be maintained

Sponsored by National Social Marketing Centre

Topics