Petera Reine Diaban, MPH, attends 2022 World Social Marketing Conference

After 8 hours of travel from sunny and humid New Orleans to an overcast sky in Brighton, England, the principal consultant of SMALA Consulting Group, Petera Reine Diaban, arrived to the 2022 World Social Marketing Conference. The conference was held in an area the locals described as an artsy, quirky, seaside resort. This description seemed to be true judging from the array of murals, art installations, and the up-side down house. While the area itself was intriguing, the breath of conversation held during the conference did not pale by comparison. Below are the top 3 takeaways gleaned from the 7th World Social Marketing Conference.

1) Cross disciplinary solutions are the future of social marketing.

In the opening plenary, Dr. Jeff French, President of the International Social Marketing Association, mentioned that the future of social marketing will require cross disciplinary solutions. And, I couldn’t agree more. Over the course of my career, collaborative approaches guided by partnerships between public health organizations and commercial marketing agencies have help to improve message reach to priority audiences. Now, the circle of collaboration is expanding to include psychologists (and other professions) to help inform how carefully crafted messages and creative imagery can effectively eliminate barriers to change. The takeaway is for social marketing practitioners to strive to include expertise of other sectors that can assist in high quality qualitative research (to deeply understand the priority audience), develop advertising solutions that will reach the audience at every touch point of the customer journey, and build creates that resonates with the audience in a deep, instinctual way.

2)Process is equally as important as the evaluation of a social marketing campaign.

It is no secret that marketing metrics can be purchased, particularly impressions and reach, as these targets can be achieved by bidding on ad space. However, in order to really affect behavior change, which is the goal of social marketing, one must devote effort to understanding the intended audience for the campaign. This boils down to process and that process must involve co-creation with members of the audience we aim to reach; some may call this design thinking and others may call this community-based participatory research. Some key benefits of co-creation are buy-in and campaign champions, learning which channels are best to share the message, understanding which images and messages resonate with the audience, and ensuring that the campaign is designed with equity in mind.

3)Networking is the greatest benefit from conference attendance.

By and large, the greatest benefit of attending a conference is networking to build new professional relationships. A conference is a social hub of intellectuals, thought-leaders, practitioners, and researchers. These are individuals who may be driven and over-zealous to assist you with a question or project. Therefore, connect-connect-connect. Attend the socials, chat during the coffee breaks and lunch plenary, and go to dinner with a group of conference attendees. These professional relationships have the potential to pay off in dividends. Here is a blog that shares tips on how to network at a conference.