Ogilvy PR survey shows role of social marketing in health initiatives

Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide has published a new survey that demonstrates the impact social marketing can have on aiding global health initiatives and driving societal change.

A study compiled in association with The Conference People has questioned more than 600 marketers, communications experts and researchers attending the recent World Non-Profit and Social Marketing Conference, in order to determine the impact of this trend.

More than 80 percent of respondents said they believe social marketing is at least somewhat widely used in their country to drive social and behavioural change.

Areas in which this was said to have the most impact included tobacco use prevention, awareness of health epidemics such as malaria or Aids and issues relating to chronic illness.

Win Morgan, president and chief executive officer of the International Social Marketing Association, said: "We applaud Ogilvy and The Conference People for helping to shed light on the importance of social marketing as a tool to positively affect global health and social issues."

In June 2011, the Ogilvy and Mather group won 12 gold Lions at Cannes, the highest number in its history.