How To Get the Word Out? Building Block #6—Promoting the Activity

Whether you plan a one-time event, a series of events, or an ongoing activity, you’ll need to promote it—the sixth building block. This means getting the word out so that people will know about and take part in your activity.

Here are some ideas for getting the word out:

• Mail, fax, or hand out flyers, brochures, and newsletters to the community. For example, you can hand out flyers to parents at sports games.
• Place flyers, newsletters, and posters on neighborhood, workplace, grocery store, or community group bulletin boards.
• Use word of mouth—tell everyone you know about the activity and encourage them to attend.
• Get the media involved, especially if you’re planning a large event—send news releases, advisories, articles, and public service announcements (PSAs) to the local media.
• Find people such as nutritionists or coaches who are experts on healthy eating or physical activity. Provide their names and phone numbers to local media stations for interviews.
  

Creating Promotional Materials

Flyers, brochures, posters, newsletters, and/or media tools are needed to get the word out to the community. These materials should tell the story about your activity in a simple and clear way.
(See the end of this section for examples.)

What information should you include? The who, what, when, where, why, and how:

• Name of activity
• Who the sponsors are
• Whom the activity is for
• What you want people to do (activity goal)
• When it will take place
• Where it will take place
• Why you are having the activity
• How to sign up or get more information
  

Working With the Media

Television, radio, and newspaper media can help get people’s attention about your activity, so think about contacting the media or ask partners to do this for you. Media will find your event newsworthy if it’s new, if the topic is already getting wide coverage (such as the problem with obesity in the United States), or if it’s part of a national health observance or local festival.

Create a media list. This is a list of the media people you will contact about your activity. Depending on where you live, your media list may be a few names and stations or more. Ask your partners to help you make a list of reporters, television channels, radio stations, newspapers, and news editors. Include names, titles, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. The library can also help you find information on the media. Try to find out about deadlines for sending news and about each media’s preferences for how they would like to receive information, for example, by e-mail or fax, and add this to your list.

Prepare media tools. Here are some general tips for creating media tools. Examples of media tools are found at the end of this building block.

News advisories or releases: These are the most common tools for communicating with the media. A news (or media) advisory is a short announcement or invitation to an event or activity. A news (or press) release is usually more detailed and should include information about the activity and related health issues.

Tips:

• Use letterhead or good quality paper and include organization or contact name, address, and telephone number.
• Put “For immediate release” directly under, or to the left of, your contact information.
• Use a catchy title.
• Include the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
• For a news release, include interesting details or facts about physical activity or healthy eating in your community.
• Use short, clear sentences.
• Keep news releases short—one or two pages; news advisories should be one page.
• Go over news advisories and news releases carefully. Make sure there are no errors.

Public Service Announcements (PSAs): There are many different types of PSAs, such as prerecorded PSAs or PSA scripts for radio and television. PSAs are very short—usually 10, 30, 60, or 90 seconds in length. Consider writing a radio PSA script that will then be read on the air by a radio announcer. Unlike advertisements, PSAs are free to place, but you can’t choose the times when your PSA will be read.

Tips:

• Have a catchy title.
• Give specific information or an action to take.
• Read the PSA to yourself and time it to make sure the length is correct.

Send information to the media. Send media tools—news advisories, releases, and PSAs—to the people on your media list at least 1–2 weeks before the activity. Also include background information about the benefits of physical activity or healthy eating. (See Building Block #8.) Give information about the organizers and partners, such as where they’re located and what they do. Make a follow-up call to each contact on your media list to make sure that the tools were received, and answer any questions they may have about them.

Sample Flyer or Poster

Sample Flyer or Poster

Sample News Advisory

Sample News Release

Sample 30-Second Radio Public Service Announcement (PSA)

For longer PSAs, add more information.

Success Story: The Lifestyle Challenge

“The idea for the Challenge was born out of a need. A few years ago, a group from the hospital where I work came to me because they wanted help losing weight. It was important for me, as a dietitian, to give them information about how to make healthy eating choices, but I also wanted to teach them about fitness—and I wanted them to have fun! I started the Lifestyle Challenge as a competition between departments.

I taught the group about nutrition and physical activity and then watched their progress, cheering them on all the way. At the end of the 15-week program, teams with the most combined weight loss or exercise minutes won small prizes—massage coupons or pedometers that were bought with the $2 that everyone chipped in to join. The teams were more excited to win “bragging rights” than the goodies.

That sort of personal pride created a positive buzz. Before I knew it, other businesses, the local radio station, and even the state health agency jumped on the bandwagon! With so much interest, I have been able to get funding to expand the Challenge community wide. It has now grown from 72 hospital employees to about 350 people from the general public. This is exciting, because our town only has 7,500 residents.

The participants come from all walks of life. One team called “Three Generations” was a grandmother, parents, and teens. Some persons with physical and mental challenges do chair aerobics and upper-body exercises. Wherever they are in life, each person is as motivated, energetic, hard working, and positive about their health as the next.

Not only are these people making changes, our community is seeing a need for services that promote physical activity and healthy eating. Restaurants have started offering healthy meal options, and our town—which never had fitness facilities—raised $2.25 million from private donations to build a $10 million wellness center.

It’s been amazing for me to watch this whole process. Something I do outside of my regular job has taken on a life of its own because of the enthusiasm of the participants. I’m glad that I was given the chance to share their story when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services invited me to speak at their Healthy People 2010 Summit in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2003.”

Michelle W., 34—Estherville, Iowa

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