Buzz agents in a teen-driven social marketing campaign: Positive campaign attitude leads to positive changes in health outcomes

A research team in Nebraska developed a public health campaign for teens focused on obesity prevention, based on social marketing and buzz marketing principles, to test a series of hypotheses postulating that positive attitude toward the campaign among the most engaged members of the target audience, the buzz agents, will lead to positive attitudinal as well as positive self-reported behavioral changes involving fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity. The team implemented the Whatcha doin? social marketing campaign in a select number of public high schools in Nebraska from 2007 to 2013. Results from 6 years of annual survey data of buzz agents in these schools showed positive associations between attitude toward the campaign and changes in health attitudes and behavior.