When Congress in 2001 gave $125 million to CDC to launch a campaign that would help children develop habits to foster good health over a lifetime and to use methods that are employed by the best kids' marketers, the directive was historic for many reasons. The funding was the largest ever given to CDC for a single initiative, and the language specified the promotion of child health in a way new to government, but not new to children—marketing directly to them. For 4 plus years, we surrounded children with engaging messages about the benefits of physical activity. Implementing VERB™ was a thrilling and energizing experience for CDC. That kids loved the campaign and got moving because of it makes VERB a landmark achievement.
With the publication of this supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, another milestone of the VERB story is achieved. The papers that compose this supplement
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assemble in one place extensive details about the planning and implementation of this historic public health intervention. Readers will discover important lessons from the VERB experience that can be used to guide our efforts to address many of the critical and complex public health problems we will face in the 21st century.The VERB campaign illustrates the power of partnerships between public health agencies and the private sector groups that know how to compellingly engage our shared target audiences. The depth and range of VERB's activities provide evidence that we can reach, even surround, young people with public health messages—in mass-media outlets, on the Internet sites they visit, in schools, and in the youth-serving agencies and organizations they frequent. VERB demonstrates that public health campaigns promoting abstract concepts, such as health promotion behaviors, can benefit from the use of branding, just as commercial marketing campaigns use branding to promote consumer products. Plus, the fact that the communities that leveraged VERB's national advertising could build support for their programs hints at what could be possible with sustained funding and even greater attention paid to stimulate local efforts.
A number of key individuals and groups made VERB possible and made it such a success. The Honorable John Porter, former Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, and former Congressman from Illinois, sponsored the appropriation to fund the campaign. The Department of Health and Human Services facilitated our work in numerous ways, including rapid review and approval of the hundreds of advertising and promotional items. VERB benefited greatly from the expert guidance we received from many of our public health colleagues who are experts in physical activity and marketing. We are thankful for the national and community partners who responded to the need to provide opportunities for children to be active. We salute the remarkably talented staffs at the advertising agencies that turned the abstract concept of more physical activity into a compelling brand for tweens. And we are especially proud of the CDC staff who came together to form the VERB team. They demonstrated exceptional dedication and commitment to improving children's health, all the while serving as wise stewards of public resources.
The VERB campaign broke new ground for public health in many ways. Reaching our tween “customers” directly through sophisticated methods of commercial marketing, branding a behavior (instead of a product) around which messages would be delivered through substantial paid media, building partnerships with media giants, establishing governmental channels to review advertisements and promotions within a short timeframe to meet production deadlines—these are just a few examples. VERB challenged our traditional models of public health while persuading us to trust the marketing process and to be bold and nimble. This supplement will shed light on how VERB did what it did so well and will provide insights and inspiration to those who will design and implement innovative public health campaigns in the future.
The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views' of the CDC.
No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this paper.
Supplementary data
- VERB™ Background Reports
References
- It's what you do! Reflections on the VERB™ campaign.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: S175-S182
- The VERB™ campaign: applying a branding strategy in public health.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: S183-S187
- Bringing “play” to life: the use of experiential marketing in the VERB™ campaign.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 188-193
- The VERB™ campaign's strategy for reaching African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian children and parents.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 194-209
- Catalyzing community action within a national campaign: VERB™ community and national partnerships.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 210-221
- Overview of formative, process, and outcome evaluation methods used in the VERB™ campaign.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 222-229
- Methodology of the outcome evaluation of the VERB™ campaign.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 230-240
- Initial outcomes of the VERB™ campaign: tweens' awareness and understanding of campaign messages.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 241-248
- Testing a hierarchy-of-effects model: pathways from awareness to outcomes in the VERB™ campaign 2002-2003.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 249-256
- Did augmenting the VERB™ campaign advertising in select communities have an effect on awareness, attitudes, and physical activity?.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 257-266
- Influencing the parents of children aged 9–13 years: findings from the VERB™ campaign.Am J Prev Med. 2008; 34: 267-274
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© 2008 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
