Health Promotion and Behavior Change Communication

Futures Group’s vision for health promotion and behavior change communication is to empower high-risk, underserved populations with the information, motivation, and access needed to improve their well-being through informed choices on health products and services from commercial and public outlets.

Communication strategies resulting in sustained behavior change encourage consistent use of reproductive, maternal, and child health products and services and ensure long-term market (public and private) viability. Numerous activities can be adopted to achieve desired behavior change over time; the most successful strategies are underpinned by themes of access, trust, and repetition and shaped by formative research to ensure acceptability and appeal to target audiences. Futures Group’s focus on achieving behavior change, rather than simply generating demand, results in sustained use; the ensuing total market growth stimulates private sector participation in addressing public health goals, which ultimately leads to improved overall population health. We have decades of experience in building effective communications campaigns, tailored for and targeted to specific populations, using a variety of channels and tactics, ranging from electronic media to interpersonal communication.

Under the COMPRI-A Project in Afghanistan, Futures Group and its partners are working to enhance existing social marketing initiatives and to generate sustained behavior change around reproductive, maternal and child health. The emphasis of the social and behavior change communication is to empower high risk, underserved Afghan consumers with the information and access to make informed choices about services and products available through commercial and public outlets.

In Niger, under a KfW-funded social marketing project, the intention was to make condoms more affordable and accessible to the Nigerien public by creating and promoting a new brand of condom, called Le Foula. Futures Group’s media campaign, which promoted the use of condoms, was launched at the same time the World Cup soccer tournament was being televised and included six television slots, 12 radio slots, a music video, three posters in different formats, some new road signs, and a whole range of promotional articles. The project worked closely with two local radio stations to create a series of radio programs broaching sensitive subjects such as sex and condom use. Popular theater groups developed sketches that were then played on the radio, which helped grab the attention of key target audiences and spread IEC messages in a subtle, subliminal way on a large scale.

For the Jamaica Social Marketing project, funded by KfW, Futures Group’s work significantly expanded the overall condom market through marketing communications that promoted consistent condom use with both casual and primary partners. The Futures Group team designed and conducted carefully tailored research to support message design, monitor distribution and sales, and assess consumer purchase and usage behavior.