John Bromley's blog

The NSMC is currently working with the Jordan Social Marketing Center (JSMC) on a number of water and energy projects designed to deliver behaviour change on people's use of Jordan's scarce natural resources.  Jordan is one of the most "resource poor" countries in the world and has water rationing across the whole country.  It imports over 97% of all its energy and has experienced challenges over the last few years from high levels of inward migration because of the Syrian civil war.

The only time that I recall some of our most successful projects is when I am training and I am using one of a past social marketing interventions to explain or demonstrate a core concept.  One of the most innovative projects of the last decade was the "Be a star" breastfeeding programme.  Based in Lancashire and in partnership with the Little Angels breastfeeding peer support organisation and The Hub, the programme promotes breastfeeding amongst 16- to 25-year-old mothers. 

We have almost completed a new social marketing strategy for Medecins sans Frrontieres in Rustenburg South Africa.  The project's aim was to increase the number of women who had suffered gender based violence to access new medical and counseling care centers setup close to the towns of the mining belt close to Rustenburg in South Africa.

The NSMC has now spent over two weeks working with Doctors Without Borders in South Africa to train their health promotion workers to interview women who have been the victim of gender based violence.  The aim of the project is to get more women who have been abused into dedicated clinic's set-up by MSF and the Department of Health in and around Rustenburg.  We are hoping these interviews with people in the target population will provide us with enough insight to develop a fully fledged social marketing programme.

A couple of weeks ago we were in Washington D.C. for the 5^th World Social Marketing Conference. It seems like just yesterday that The NSMC was organising the 1^st World Conference in Brighton and over the past decade the conference has been held in Ireland, Canada and Australia and now it was the USA's turn to host the event.

Below, Dr Rowena Merritt of The NSMC, reflects on the conference:

The NSMC are currently working with the highly respected Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) on a project in the platinum mining belt in South Africa.  The aim of this project based in Rustenburg is to get women and men who have been raped or suffered sexual abuse to attend specially designed MSF clinics that provide essential medical and counselling support.  Despite the fact that recent statistics show that around 40% of women in the area have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime, the numbers of people coming to the centre are still relatively low.

In late January/early February 2017, The NSMC piloted a night-time Help Point in central Hastings designed to reduce the number of minor alcohol-related injuries and provide a refuge for vulnerable people.

Over 50 people used the service over the two nights. Some came in to sober up and take a break from drinking while others were treated by St John Ambulance staff for issues ranging from ankle injuries to severe alcohol intoxication.  We also helped members of the street community with warm drinks and clothing on two particularly cold and wet winter nights.

We are delighted to announce that the National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) will be a key sponsor of the 5th World Social Marketing Conference that will take place in Washington D.C, USA in May 2017.

The mission of the World Social Marketing Conference is to act as a vehicle to help build a global movement dedicated to capturing, spreading and nurturing good practice in Social Marketing, as well as increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Social Marketing practice at both operational and strategic levels.