VERB Inspires Action

Do you VERB? If you participate in walking, running, and swimming then, yes, you do!  As more focus turns to protecting the public's health through promoting healthier lifestyles, so does the need to create innovative campaigns and marketing strategies that inspire audiences to act . . . to VERB. 

VERB, a national, multicultural, social marketing campaign coordinated by CDC was initiated to encourage children aged 9-13 years (tweens) to be physically active every day. The VERB campaign, which ran from 2002–2006, used a social marketing approach to deliver its messages through mass media, schools, and community promotions. Though the campaign is over, the premise for which it was enacted remains relevant.

VERB Campaign: Three-Pronged Approach to Partnership Strategy

A supplement in the June 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine focused on the campaign's community and national partnership strategy, highlighting three successful partnerships, and discussing challenges associated with these efforts.
Community partners were engaged to facilitate a product-distribution channel. The campaign developed a three-pronged partnership strategy to integrate the promotion with the placement of the campaign's product (physical activity): 1) reframe the way physical activity is positioned and delivered; 2) connect the brand to the point-of-purchase; and 3) refer (or drive) the audience to the action outlets, opportunities, places, spaces, and programs to purchase the product.

The goals of the campaign and its promotion activities were to

• Increase knowledge and improve attitudes and beliefs about tweens' regular participation in physical activity;
• Increase parental and influencer support and encouragement of tweens' participation in physical activity;
• Heighten awareness of options and opportunities for tween participation in physical activity;
• Facilitate opportunities for tweens to participate in regular physical activity; and
• Increase and maintain the number of tweens who regularly participate in physical activity.

The VERB campaign provided partners with marketing training and resources to assist them as they leveraged tweens' brand awareness and supported regular physical activity among tweens. The VERB campaign exemplified that coordinated, collaborative, and strong mass-media and community-based interventions within a national social marketing campaign can sustain the immediate effects of such campaigns.

For more information on the VERB Campaign, visit CDC's Youth Media Campaign site.