Develop Intervention Details

Example

In Arkansas, state employees participated in a worksite wellness program. They could earn points for prizes or paid time off work. One creative prize was a set of bracelets that people could wear. Each time they ate a serving of fruits or vegetables they could transfer a bracelet from one wrist to the other. At the end of the day, they could easily track how many servings of fruits and vegetables they had eaten. While more of a gimmick or prize, the bracelets supported behavior change and allowed participants to easily track their behavior.

Incentives

Think carefully about any incentives you offer for participating in your program. Sometimes incentives are used to get people to pay attention to what you are doing. Ideally, though, you should use incentives or motivators that will help people change their behavior, not just participate in your program. If you decide to use prizes or other tangible incentives, make sure they are ones that the audience segment would actually want and are relevant to the desired behavior change. No matter what type of incentives you use, they should not make up your entire promotional plan.

Work through any rules that you will need about who can win prizes or receive incentives before the program starts. You may need to think of many possible contingencies, for example, whether someone who completes half of the program is eligible for an incentive or not.

photo of a blue ribbon