title: Bringing "play" to life: the use of experiential marketing in the VERB campaign.
abstract: Given the abundance of advertising and media that children and adolescents are exposed to today, it is increasingly important to incorporate nontraditional channels and venues in strategies designed to reach them. One such channel that the CDC's VERB campaign employed was experiential marketing, which is defined here as a live event or experience that gives the target audience the opportunity to see a product and experience it for themselves. Experiential marketing and the tactics that the VERB campaign used to reach children aged 9-13 years (tweens) with health messages about physical activity are described, including a discussion about how other public health campaigns might use experiential marketing and other commercial marketing techniques to reach the public with public health messages.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55410, USA. heitz022@umn.edu
authors.forename: Carrie D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Heitzler
authors.forename: Lori D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Asbury
authors.forename: Stella L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Kusner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001560:Benzidines; D002648:Child; D003256:Community Participation; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D009043:Motor Activity; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011634:Public Health; D040241:Social Marketing; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D001560:Benzidines; C018917:dicarboxydine