Poster Campaign

Objective / Description

The objective is to raise the population's awareness of the fact that physical activity helps to maintain participation and quality of life also in older people.

• Posters that show older people doing exercises or be physically active in different situations.
• Speech bubbles, containing sentences, are meant to encourage self-reflection and give new impulses considering the topic exercise.
• At the bottom margin a link to the web page can be found, which lists adequate exercise classes for older people.

Procedure

• Selection of adequate images
• Collection of motivating statements to put into the speech bubbles
• Image processing by graphic artist
• Contacting of institutions and organizations that might participate and put up the posters.

Stakeholders and their tasks

• Project employees and graphic artist: Working out the contents and selection of pictures
• Putting up the posters: public transport, pharmacies, medical supply stores, doctor's offices, hospitals, geriatric centers, retail trade, local public health department, nursing office, groups for older people, church communities, exercise rooms of sports clubs, the German Red Cross and the adult education center, city council's department for older people, branches of the district savings bank, health insurance companies

Material

• Pictorial material of high quality and resolution (eg from Fotolia.de)
• The message of the posters should be of a proactive nature, to encourage exercise and physical activity. The content should focus on the short-term benefits, not the long-term risks of non-exercising.
• Printed posters in A2 and A3 format, plus leaflets of the same design in A5

Expenses / Time

Expenses for legal picture usage: 10 - 40 €/picture

Expenses for printing and number of copies:

• A2 format: 10 times 12 pieces = 120 pieces, 4,75 € net each
• A3 format: 42 times 12 pieces = 504 pieces, 0,40 € net each
• A5 format: 5000 pieces paid and printed by a local sponsor

Results

Posters with 12 different layouts:

Experiences / Advice

• Picture selection with care: do not select only fit seniors. It has to be pointed out that frail older people can exercise and be physically active as well (eg by using an aid). Furthermore, show various situations that can be used to exercise: eg outdoors, while taking a walk, spending time with the grandchildren or in a gymnastics group etc.
• The response was very positive and there was a huge demand for the posters. In particular, the image selection was valued, meaning that no airbrushed pictures with exclusively sprightly older people were used.
• Posters of this kind should always be embedded in an overall program to increase physical activity and not be used as an individual strategy. In total, this strategy seems to be useful: it raises awareness for physical activity and exercising in old age, different offers (eg web page) can be advertised and the images can be used for other media purposes as well (eg flyer).
• The development of a Corporate Design seems to be practical, as long as various products are going to be distributed and a high value of brand recognition appears to be useful (eg journals, flyers, newspaper articles or web pages).
• Of great significance is the availability of established distribution channels. To gain support of institutions and organizations that participate in putting up the posters, it is essential to stress the issue's relevance and the possible benefit for them, as soon as the contact has been established.