Hager Sharp Presents at 20th Annual Social Marketing in Public Health Conference

Garry and Elizabeth, along with social marketing expert R. Craig Lefebvre, led a session called “Applying Social Marketing Principles to Partnership Development.”  Partners play a critical role in social marketing campaigns, yet they are often underutilized.  Many times they are brought in after campaigns have launched to serve as a promotional vehicle and distribution source for materials and messages.  Hager Sharp’s partnership work demonstrates that this trend can be reversed using social marketing principles.

Using three case studies—National Women’s Health Week, Best Bones Forever! (both conducted on behalf of the HHS’ Office on Women’s Health), and the National Diabetes Education Program—Elizabeth and Garry demonstrated the need to think of partners as a priority audience and to shift thinking from “partners as passive promoters” to “partners as actively engaged, valuable assets.”  To do that, it is critical to apply social marketing principles, especially research (to understand the partner’s needs, wants, and barriers), audience segmentation (recognizing that one size does not fit all), incentivization, social norming, and the 4 Ps—product, price, place, and promotion.   

The presentation was a huge hit!  More than 60 attendees participated in the session, and many asked great questions that showed they were interested and engaged.  The presentation helped generate new partners for the featured campaigns, and many attendees indicated they were inspired to apply what they learned to their own programs and campaigns.  One participant even exclaimed “either you guys are really smart people or you have really great clients!”  Hager Sharp does indeed have terrific clients, and we give much of the credit for successful partnerships to them because they are open to collaboration, willing to take risks, and grateful to the partner organizations that do take action.