Health and Behaviour Change

Client

Hertfordshire Sports Partnership

Project

Active Herts: I'm Doing It...

Increasing the physical activity levels of inactive communities in Hertfordshire.

Active Herts is a health activator programme for communities in the Hertfordshire area, promoting the benefits of exercise and encouraging inactive people to take part in local fitness activities.

Six communities, including GP practices in Hertfordshire, received Sports England funding to set up Health Activator programmes to tackle fitness, reduce diabetes prevalence and prevent obesity.

The main project objectives were:

Create a print and advertising campaign with a ‘local’ feel that includes positive and inspiring messages.

Provide an easy-to-navigate website platform to promote the Active Herts programme to the general public in Hertfordshire.

Create a database of local activities for community members to find suitable groups for them and their needs. Make information easy and accessible.

Have a library of resources for health professionals to easily download to promote the programme in their area.

Our vision was to ensure that we made fitness accessible. Rather than use photography of gyms (which can be intimidating to novices), we used photography of everyday activities.

We designed the Active Herts campaign around profile photography, showcasing individuals from a range of ages, genders, and ethnicities taking part in sporting activity. It was important to make this campaign really visual and to feature real people (not models) so that our target audience would engage with our campaign messages. We wanted our target audience to be able to visualise themselves in the same shoes as our campaign champions and break down stereotype barriers of what constitutes ‘fitness’ and ‘exercise’.

The photography was partnered with a variety of emotive messages about what motivates different people to get involved in exercise. This was written in first person so our target audience could relate to the visuals, and to encourage them to think about what their main motivation would be to get involved with the programme.

The website mirrored this vision and was centred around scrolling header images and visual case studies placed throughout the site.

RESULTS
Active Herts had a target of 100 people on the programme in year one. After two months of campaign activity, we exceeded this target.

2,300+ people have subscribed to the Active Herts programme in the past two years with many describing it as a ‘life changing’ experience.

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