News/PR on VERB

Instructions: Summarize and link to THREE news articles about your SOCIAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN that report, raise questions, and/or encourage support.

*** From USA Today, March 1, 2004: "CDC ad campaign to get kids to play outside"
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-03-01-CDC-ads_x.htm

In 2002, the CDC took a poll before the start of the VERB campaign asking tweens (ages 9-13) how many times per week that they were physically active. A year later, in 2003, the CDC conducted the same poll again. The results, one year into the VERB campaign, showed an increase of one active time per week more than the year before for children ages 9-10. Children aged 11-13 did not report any change. Brand recognition, which was the goal of the first year, produced results the CDC was happy with. The survey reports that 75% of tweens knew of the VERB campaign.

*** From The Wall Street Journal, September 5, 2006: "Passing the Ball: Hip Campaign That Got Kids to Be Active Looks for Its Next Move"
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB115741165465153226

The VERB campaign had to be canceled due to lack of funding, at the same time results of studies were showing the success of the campaign. A study published in the medical journal Pediatrics showed that children ages 9-10 who had seen the VERB campaign reported one third more physical activity than the children who did not know of the VERB campaign. The campaign increased physical activity in girls aged 9-13 by almost 27%. Westat, a social science research firm, also reported positive trends in activity levels among school-aged children. One of the issues with VERB was its lack of adult awareness since the advertisements were targeted only to children.

Critics complained that the VERB campaign was only about exercise, and some critics wanted it to include messages about eating healthy in addition to activity. The CDC responded that they wanted to focus on a positive message celebrating physical activity.

The campaign did not consist solely of traditional advertising media like television ads and magazine ads. Another aspect of the campaign was a give away of yellow VERB balls distributed to schools. Children were asked to blog about their experience with the ball, and then pass the ball on to a friend. Then they could follow the ball's path on VERB's website. There was a 4% blog response rate.

*** From The New York Times, October 15, 2003: "THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING -- ADDENDA; C.D.C. Adjusts Anti-Obesity Campaign"
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/15/business/the-media-business-advertising-addenda-cdc-adjusts-anti-obesity-campaign.html

The VERB campaign was not without criticism. Critics complained that the VERB campaign in its first year was too vague. The ads at the time included active children with words superimposed on the screen like "run" and "jump." New ads planned would have phrases such as "Everyday is Game Day" or "Get Out, Go Play." The change in the direction of the campaign to more specific commands was reported to have been planned all along by the CDC and not in response to criticism.

''Our strategy was always for the first year to be about brand awareness,'' Micahel Greenwell, Director of the Chronic Disease Center division of the CDC said. ''We seeded the brand with a real short message that piqued their interest. Then we planned to get more specific.''