Step by step: Walking through the development of Move Your Way, a national physical activity campaign

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:

In 2018, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) released the second edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (PAG). The Guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations to help all Americans maintain and improve their health through physical activity.

ODPHP partnered with CommunicateHealth (CH) to create Move Your Way — a national campaign that uses strategies from the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change to promote the recommendations in the PAG. We also developed a strategy to launch and evaluate the campaign in 2 pilot communities.

Methods:

Formative research with consumers and health professionals identified preferences around physical activity-related communications and common barriers and facilitators to physical activity. Based on these findings, we designed the campaign icon and created a messaging strategy tailored to key target audiences.

Message and material testing in English and Spanish included focus groups and interviews with consumers, providers, and stakeholders. Based on the findings, we iterated on the icon design, refined the messaging strategy, and created the suite of Move Your Way materials in English and Spanish, including

• 2 interactive tools
• 5 fact sheets
• 5 posters
• 4 videos and 6 30-second video tips
• Web badges and widgets
• Social media content

We then used the Community-Based Prevention Marketing Framework to develop a pilot test for the campaign in 2 communities.

Results:

Research and testing found that physical activity contemplators:

• Have unique barriers and facilitators
• Prefer diverse and inclusive messaging that addresses barriers to physical activity over messaging about how or why they should exercise
• Find the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity overwhelming
• Aren’t actively seeking physical activity guidance
• Prefer community-based sources (i.e., family and friends) for information about physical activity

The second edition of the Guidelines and the Move Your Way campaign launched on November 12, 2018. In the first 2 weeks after launch, online coverage reached an estimated 2.9 billion people.

The pilot tests for the Move Your Way campaign launched on February 9, 2019 with the first of a series of events planned for each community. A 5-month social media ad buy targeting the 2 communities delivered over 2 million impressions in the first 12 days.

Conclusions:

ODPHP is completing a multi-tiered, mixed methods evaluation of the pilot test in 2 communities, including:

• A survey to measure pilot community members’ physical activity-related knowledge, awareness, behavior, behavioral intent, and self-efficacy
• Interviews with representatives from participating organizations to gauge overall satisfaction with the campaign
• Process evaluations and reports from community leads to track and quantify community members’ engagement in the campaign
• Monthly web and social media analytics to assess the campaign's reach

Implications for research and/or practice:

The results of ODPHP’s pilot testing will inform future approaches to increasing physical activity levels. Specifically, the pilot test will evaluate the potential of messaging geared towards physical activity contemplators. It will also offer insight into how applying the Community-Based Prevention Marketing Framework can impact physical activity awareness and behavior at the community level.