National Social Marketing Centre

As the field of social marketing is still relatively undeveloped in England, ten learning demonstration sites were set up in 2007 with funding from the Department of Health (DH). These were to help local areas apply and integrate social marketing into their programmes and strategies, whilst helping to develop a robust evidence base for social marketing. They are also a key component of DH's Ambitions for Health strategic framework to build capacity and skills in applying social marketing principles to health interventions.

The learning demonstration sites are based in Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and local authorities across the country, and address a range of health challenges and issues.

The aims of the scheme are to:

• Stimulate the use and integration of social marketing into local strategic and operational planning

• Build on and develop existing skills in using and applying social marketing concepts and approaches

• Capture learning and promote effective social marketing practice

• Inform and contribute to the development and testing of a growing range of NSMC's practical resources and tools

• Support the further development of the evidence base for effective customer-focused behavioural interventions and social marketing related work

Each of the learning demonstration sites has considered all eight of the NSMC’s social marketing benchmark criteria when developing their project. Each site also follows the social marketing process from start to finish, based on the NSMC’s five-stage Total Process Planning framework. Most of the learning demonstration sites are now in the implementation stage of the Total Process Planning framework. You can find out more about each site here.