Healthy Choices Catch On

Overview

Since 2006, Michigan Fitness Foundation's SNAP-Ed Social Marketing campaigns have been effectively engaging and influencing nutrition and physical activity behaviors among SNAP-Ed eligible residents in Michigan. The current campaign, Healthy Choices Catch On is modeled on the USDA Core Message that emphasizes parents as a child's role model and first teacher. Like past MFF campaigns, Grow Your Kids and They Learn from Watching you, the Healthy Choices Catch On campaign messages, images, videos, and distribution methods through traditional and digital platforms work as behavior nudges to move people along the transtheoretical model of behavior change. The six stages of change are pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.

Primary Intervention Objectives:

Influence healthy eating and physical activity behaviors of SNAP-Ed eligible populations.
Reinforce the importance of parents and caregivers as healthy behavior role models for children.
Promote messages aligned with SNAP-Ed direct education and policy, systems, and environmental initiatives, creating community wrap-around.

Core messages of the 2020 Campaign are:

Show them the way: eat fruits and veggies every day
Show them the way: go out and play

Intervention Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity and Reducing Screen Time

SNAP-Ed Strategies: Social Marketing

Intervention Reach and Adoption

Messages are designed for adults, parents, and caregivers and delivered in community settings. The scope of the MFF campaign is adjusted annually, including the settings where it is delivered. Geotargeting is used to select billboards, transit signs, and social media buys in SNAP-eligible census tracts to reach priority populations.

Settings: Community-wide

Age/Population Group: Parents/Caregivers, Adults

Race: All

Ethnicity: All

Intervention Components

Campaign messages are delivered using a variety of traditional and digital marketing methods:

Traditional

Billboards (traditional, digital, driving)
Bus transit (interior, exterior, bus stop shelters)
Truck wraps
SNAP-Ed Program materials (display banners, table covers, overlays, A-frame posters, etc.)

Digital

Websites and companion social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest)
Mobile (smartphones, tablets via banners, SMS/MMS messaging)
Over-the-top (OTP) television streaming media service

The Campaign scope is revised annually, based on evaluation and local needs. The 2022 Campaign featured:

Statewide total recall of 4,703,906 via traditional and digital distribution.
Traditional distribution included 105 billboards and 411 transit posters across 17 counties
Digital distribution through streaming television in 63 counties, statewide social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, MFF campaign websites, SMS/MMS text messaging, mobile banners across 83 counties
Locally, SNAP-Ed Program Materials were used during programming at farmers markets and CSA farms, retail settings like grocery stores, food pantries, and corners stores, community settings like libraries, parks, rec centers, senior centers, community gardens and schools

Intervention Materials

MFF Social Marketing materials promoting fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity are available for SNAP-Ed programs to reach communities through multiple traditional and digital channels. The materials are intentionally integrated with Michigan Harvest to Table™, formerly Michigan Harvest of the Month™, recipes and educational resources.

Michigan Fitness Foundation SNAP-Ed Social Marketing Campaign Materials: https://michiganfitnessfoundation.app.box.com/s/u9chdhnhp0mc8i3bo2psmzkx7l59mmwb

MFF campaign materials may be found from the following links:

Websites:

Social Media:

Evidence Summary

The Transtheoretical Model (stages of change) is used to understand the influence of the Campaign on priority populations. The Stages of Change Model categorizes individuals' readiness to make positive dietary and physical activity changes into one of five stages and is mediated by constructs including self-efficacy and the pros and cons of making a change. The goal of the Campaign is to help people progress along the stages of change towards increasing their healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.

The reach, awareness, and effectiveness of the campaign are evaluated annually. The most recent findings relate to the 2018 Campaign, which was evaluated in 2022. A population-based survey was randomly distributed to SNAP-eligible residents statewide with an emphasis on counties that received the campaign through at least three or more locations via out of home channels (e.g., billboards, buses). Eligible households were invited to participate in a survey. Paper (10,000) and online invitations were used to recruit survey respondents. Collectively, (n=1,439) people responded to either survey invitation. Data were weighted to match profiles of SNAP recipients based on area of residence, gender, and age to allow findings to be generalizable to 721,948 SNAP-eligible people.

Intentions to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and be active were measured. Questions aligned with indicators ST1 and ST3 in the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework and the Transtheoretical Stages of Change. The Stages of Change include pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.

47% of people are preparing to increase their fruit in the next 30 days
61% of people are preparing to increase their vegetable consumption in the next 30 days
Mothers and people exposed to campaign message tended to be further along the process of changing dietary behaviors
27% of people are preparing to increase their exercise frequency in the next 30 days. People exposed to campaign messages tended to be further along the model than those who were unexposed.

Unaided recall of messages is measured annually and is aligned with the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework indicator MT12. Mothers with children in the household consistently report one or more of the campaign messages more often when compared to the overall sample. For example, overall sample respondents (28%, 2021) (30%, 2022) and mothers and children (34%, 2021) (34%, 2022) recalled messages in respective years.

Approximately 30 percent of SNAP-eligible Michigan adults recalled messages; however, the priority campaign populations were more likely to recall messages. SNAP-eligible adults who were exposed to the campaign were more likely to consume fruit daily, meet recommendations for fruit, and were further along the SOC model for readiness to increase fruit consumption than their peers who were not exposed. SNAP-eligible adults who were exposed to the campaign were more likely to meet recommendations for vegetable consumption and were further along the SOC model for readiness to increase vegetable consumption than their peers who were unexposed. Few SNAP-eligible adults are meeting physical activity recommendations; however, adults exposed to campaign messages reported significantly higher levels of physical activity than their peers who were unexposed. SNAP-eligible adults who were exposed to messages more often were more likely to report healthy behaviors and readiness to increase healthy behaviors than their peers who were exposed less often.

Evidence Base: Research-tested

Evaluation Indicators

Based on the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework, the following outcome indicators can be used to evaluate intervention progress and success.

	Readiness and Capacity - Short Term (ST)	Changes - Medium Term (MT)	Effectiveness and Maintenance - Long Term (LT)	Population Results (R)
Individual	ST1, ST3
Environmental Settings
Sectors of Influence		MT12