ECC 2012 CAS302 Campaign 04 Report Final

Promoting Fitness Among College Students:

Managing a Healthy Lifestyle

Campaign Report

Laura Wake-Ramos

The Pennsylvania State University

CAS 302

Dec 11th, 2012

SOCIAL CAMPAIGN FINAL REPORT

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PROBLEM STATEMENT AND ANALYSIS

Daily exercise is an essential habit to maintain a healthy lifestyle. A

study taken place at Ohio State University found that 52% of students were

physically inactive or exercised irregularly (USA Today). “The steepest

decline in the number of people who are involved in physical activity

occurs during adolescence and early adulthood, so it is crucial that we

reach those college student who are not yet regular exercisers,”

emphasized Janet Buckworth, assistant professor of sport and exercise

sciences at Ohio State University. Regular exercise has physiological and

psychological benefits that include easier weight control, lowered risk of

high blood pressure, improved sleep, stronger bones, greater muscle

mass, and improved quality of life (Welch).

In order to expect a healthy future, adolescents in college should

build exercise into their schedule (Stokes). The Surgeon General

recommends that adults be moderately physically active for a minimum

of 30 minutes per day, at least five days per week. Studies have shown

that walking 15 minutes per day, 5 days per week has proven to increase

life expectancy.

Results of studies have shown that sports participants were more

likely to report intrinsic motives, such as enjoyment or challenge for

physical activity, whereas motivations for fitness exercisers were more

extrinsic and focused on appearance, weight, and stress management


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(Welch). The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that

people use lifestyle forms of physical activity, such as hiking, walking, or

gardening, as the main methods of exercise since there may be a

relationship between intrinsic motivation and exercise adherence

(Welch). These forms of exercise are more enjoyable and intrinsically

motivating.

The goal of the campaign is to reinforce daily exercise among college

students.

Assuming that the majority of students know the consequences of

inactivity, the campaign will motivate students to schedule time to

exercise within the busy college life of studying, extracurricular activities,

clubs, and socializing.

FORMATIVE RESEARCH

Formative research revealed the students’ attitudes on regular

exercise. Fifty percent of 3rd year Architecture students believe that

exercise is “very important,” yet 74% believe they exercise too little. The

main factors that prevent 3rd year architecture students in maintaining

their exercise routine are “studio deadlines”, “homework/studying,” “too

tired”, and “commitment for extracurricular activities.” Additionally, 72% of


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students would prefer to exercise with friends or a team with common

interests, versus 28% that would prefer to exercise alone.

These responses conclude that students understand the important

of health by exercise, and have an interest in maintaining a physical

activity routine. However, time is the deal-breaking factor in the effort.

One student claims “If I get enough time to exercise, I usually end up using

it to catch up on sleep.”

The results of Formative research was the defining factors of the

campaign, in regards of:

1. Campaign goals

The campaign goals supported that the campaign should be

to “reinforce” daily exercise, rather than create, convert, or

maintain. There is an existing understanding of the benefits of

exercise, and an intention to exercise regularly or more.

2. Target audience

The purpose of targeting 3rd year architecture intends to

represent a sample of college students. These students in a

rigorous program have almost identical academic schedules.

Ideally, organizing a campaign among students with similar

academic schedules would be easier, and students would be

able to exercise together.

3. Message design


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Message design was the most important factor developed

from Formative research. The campaign was administered

during a deadline week, when students are focused on printing

multiple large boards. Additionally, students already understand

the importance of exercise, the campaign had to be sensitive to

not insult their intelligence on exercise, or assume the lowest

physical fitness. The campaign’s novel focus could target on

how physical activity will improve the students’ as students.

Message design will focus on how regular physical activity

reduces stress, improves concentration, and is enjoyable with

friends.

4. Plans for evaluation

A post-campaign online survey will be posted for students to

answer a series of questions to measure the students’ reactions

and the success of the campaign. An online survey was

successful for Formative, because about 1/3 of the class

responded.

THEORY AND MESSAGES

Certain theories that played an important role in choice of

channels, audience analysis, and message design:

1. Habit


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Habit determines behavior. Students maintain an exercise

routine, or continue to be physical inactive by habit. The

conclusions of Ouellete & Wood (1998) created strategies for

changing habits, which have been implemented into the

campaign.

First factor is to formulate a new intention. This factor

emphasizes to introduce novel information. By introducing novel

information to the students, by sharing uncommon facts on the

benefits of exercise, may motivate students to become more

active. An example of these facts are “studies have shown that

consistent physical activity among individuals decreases tension,

reduces fatigue, improves alertness/concentration, enhances

cognitive function, improves sleep, and stabilizes mood,” “

Studies have shown that individuals are more likely to commit to

a routine with an ‘exercise buddy’,” “Five minutes of aerobic

exercise can begin to stimulate these anti-stress effect,” and

“Students who exercise regularly have an average of 0.4 higher

GPAs (on a 4.0 scale) than students who don’t exercise.”

Second factor is to leverage disruption of habit patterns. This

means, there must be a good reason to break habitual patterns.

In message design, time delivery of messages must be thought

through accordingly. Before the actual campaign week, there


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would be an advertising week, which would allow students a

week to become acquainted with the project before it is

implemented during a crucial project deadline week.

Third factor in strategizing change habit is self-control. This

factor emphasizes that it’s hard to have just willpower, because

this requires work, which requires energy. The messages for the

campaign should motivate and encourage that physical activity

is enjoyable, not work or an invaluable use of time. Messages

should emphasize “enjoyment”. Another aspect that this factor

contributed to was to use word-of-mouth. Personally

approaching individuals or smaller groups about the campaign

will help spread a positive message, so others will become more

interested.

Fourth factor is implementing intentions. This factor identifies

an “if…then” situation, so if messages are presented

persuasively, students will begin to think “if I exercise regularly,

then…” and have their own habit motivator, whether that is

better student, enjoyment, or health.

Fifth factor is remembering to do the action. For this

particular campaign to reinforce daily exercise, it’s important for

remind students to make the commitment daily. The campaign

would benefit in using different media to reach to all the


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students. The campaign utilizes a variety of media, such as email

notifications, Facebook Group, and a printed poster in studio.

The sixth factor is perceived behavioral control, as in a way to

provide evidence of success or failure. If students are

recognized for their success, then this would motivate them to

continue the activity. The campaign should reward those who

participates and became active. Friendly competition would

also be a motivator.

2. Metaphors

Metaphors are a way to create a shared understanding. The

theory of metaphors, suggests that effective metaphors can

persuade via problem definition, causal relationships, moral

evaluation, or possible solutions. If a metaphor is used effectively,

the basic concept can build the idea.

There are a few known strategies in developing an effective

metaphor. Metaphors are most effective when they have a familiar

base, with a novel idea and complex relationship. Effective

metaphors are used early in the message as organizational devices.

These ideas were adapted into the campaign in the

introduction email sent on the first day of advertisement week. The

introduction email opens with a short narrative describing the next

couple weeks of studio deadlines. The goal was to create a shared


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understanding, and create a metaphorical reason why there is this

campaign. There were some metaphors used in this narrative, for

example the term “work-mode coma” describes how students work

and work for hours of lost time in the night. A narrative introduction

was a more powerful tool than diving into the specifics of the

campaign.

IMPLEMENTATION

The campaign was a series of messages and physical activity

events. The entire campaign was two weeks long. The first week was

“advertising week”, which was the week of introducing the campaign to

the students, and creating the main mediums of communication to

students. Adding students to the Facebook Group and inviting them to

the Events, and designing a poster to put hung in studio for the week.

Over the length of 7 days, the campaign was spread thru the mediums of

Facebook, email, and word-of-mouth. The communication was a means

of preparation and awareness, so that students would not be surprised

during the campaign-deadline week.

The following week was “campaign” week. The campaign, named

“Get Up and Get Moving!” was broken into 6 days, each with a different

physical activity. Each of these activities were different, to gain the most

interest among students. Day #1 called “Walk it Out” was a 15 minutes


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group walk after studio 5:30. The walk was described as a retreat from

studio. Day #2 was “Stretch and Refresh!” was an activity to stretch and

reduce stress in studio. There were two sessions held in the Stuckeman

Family Building. Stretch and Refresh incorporated stress relieving

breathing exercises, and fliexibility. Day #3 was “Step it Up!” This was an

all-day, independent event, when students were to mark if they were

successful in climbing the stairs. Day #4 was Power Hour! This was an all-

day event, which could be carried out independently or in a group.

Students were to do 10 reps of a chosen activity on the hour, at least 6

times through out the day. Friday Funday was the last day of activities,

where was an outdoor game. Students were to vote on which activity

they wanted to play on the Facebook page through-out the week. Also

on Friday Funday, was a “Closing Ceremony” which was how students

were reward. Get Up and Get Moving recognized those who

participated in an event this week, and those who participated in every

event this week. Finally, the survey was implemented as an Event, so that

studio wouldn’t. The last event was a “Reactions survey” which was open

for all students, even those who didn’t participate actively doing.

EVALUATION

Overall, the Get Up and Get Moving campaign could be regarded

as a success. In the afternoon the introduction email was sent, numerous


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people stated they were looking forward to the campaign week and

being involved in the activities.

In all, 23 individual students out of 58 students participated in at

least one Get Up and Get Moving activity. The most popular activity was

Stretch and Refresh, with 13 participants. On average, at least 10 students

participated in each event through out the week.

The Reactions survey was an important method in evaluating the

campaign success. Students agree that their physical activity was on

target of an average week. This means their physical activity did not

decrease this week. Students were asked to select what was their first

emotional reactions to the introduction email. Most students selected

happy and interested, while only two selected annoyed. This means that

the messages were successful in motivating, and not turning away

students. Students were also asked a similar question, to select their

emotional reaction towards Get Up and Get Moving at the end of the

campaign. 100% of the students answered Happy. One students

commented “Happy it happened, sad that there isn’t a permanent

physical activity group in studio.”

A majority of the students in the reactions survey believe that if Get

Up and Get Moving were to last 20 days instead of 5 days, they were

“definitely” see an increase in their physical activity. The main reason why

students didn’t participate in an activity was due to a scheduled


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obligation, and the main reason why students did participate was

because “they felt ready for a break at the time.” The voted favorite

activity was Stretch and Refresh.

If Get Up and Get Moving were to last longer than 5 days, there

could be more Stretch and Refresh sessions, as well as Friday Funday

sessions, because they were voted to be of most interest.

PROCESS ANALYSIS

If I were to do the campaign again, I would try to organize the

campaign to have it last longer. For future CAS 302 students, I would

advise to start thinking about your campaign right away. It’s a major

focus and major grade in CAS, so I would recommend to take your idea

seriously otherwise the semester will be very difficult.

SUMMARY

The Get Up and Get Moving! campaign is to reinforce daily exercise

among college students. The series of activity and communication are

organized in hopes to raise awareness of the consequence of physical

inactivity. The campaign is a series of different activities, so that at least

one of the activities would interest students.

Documents

ECC 2012 CAS302 Campaign 04 Report Final