Fitness the Facts
Fast Facts:
Campaign: Fitness: The Facts
Dates: 1980-1985
Description: A series of six highly educational
and illustrated booklets, plus support promotional materials, distributed
to all employees by their employer.
Funding: Development and production costs were
covered by large volume sales to major corporations.
Overview:
Developed
by ParticipACTION in 1980-81. The concept and editorial content
was the work of Sarner Young (today’s Manifest Communication
and EYE Communications), while the creative design, illustration
and packaging was the work of Fifty Fingers (today’s Spencer
Francey Peters).
Target audience was employees and their families.
Funding was provided by a pre-production commitment to purchase
from a number of major employers (Canadian National, Air Canada,
etc) who guaranteed the program would be economically viable before
production funds were invested by ParticipACTION.
Dr.
Robert Bandeen, then President of Canadian National Railway and
a ParticipACTION Board member was the individual primarily responsible
for obtaining these major corporate commitments.
OBJECTIVES
- Provide attractive, factual information to employees (and family
members) on an understanding of physical fitness, its benefits
and how to get started
- Provide promotional materials to increase readership
- Provide motivational information to help individuals adopt
an active lifestyle
RESOURCES
- Six booklets with one distributed by the employer each month
to every employee. These booklets would take employees through
a step-by-step process and the booklets could be saved in the
attractive package provided
- Six posters, one intended for each booklet, which would be displayed
one week prior to a booklet’s distribution. The poster would
contain a "provocative" illustration and raise some
questions which would be answered by reading the coming booklet.
(This strategy proved to increase readership.)
- Twelve single page articles, two related to each booklet, which
would be distribute during the month that the respective booklet
was being featured. These articles would further elaborate on
the booklet’s information, while serving to keep it "top
of mind"
IMPLEMENTATION
See description in resources above for implementation strategy.
- All materials were paid for upfront by employers who were provided
with the recommended implementation plan
- A special message could be included inside the front cover of
the first booklet from the company’s President, and all
booklets could be produced with the company’s logo printed
on the cover of the booklets
- Employees were encouraged to take the booklets home and share
them with their family. To support this intent, some employers
actually mailed the monthly booklets directly to the homes of
employees
Many companies ultimately purchased this resource – one
of the first employee fitness communication programs in Canada
– and well over 100,000 employees ultimately received the
set of six booklets.
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