Ready, Steady, go : a communication campaign to reduce the risk of falling among older adults in Singapore through strength, balance and flexibility exercises

Abstract

Ready, Steady, Go, a health communication campaign, used mobile health to encourage the adoption and maintenance of strength, balance and flexibility (SBF) exercises among older adults to prevent falls. Despite perceptions that older adults are not technologically savvy, more than 1,000 older adults aged 60 to 79 years old subscribed to the campaign’s SBF home-exercise reminder messages and more than 500 older adults signed up for community exercise programmes through WhatsApp and our website. The integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaign utilised a mix of offline engagements, online channels and media outreach to effectively communicate the campaign’s benefit statement of confidence and key messages. The use of Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986) and its self-efficacy determinants also guided the campaign’s research and development, ensuring the effectiveness of mHealth use for older adults. The experimental group met all of the campaign’s impact objectives and saw a significant increase in Knowledge (22.3%), Attitude (13.4%), Self-Efficacy (25.2%) and Behaviour (39.4%), in contrast to the control group. Ready, Steady, Go garnered more than $1,000,000 in public relations value, proving its strong newsworthiness despite the COVID-19 outbreak. The evaluation and discussion of the campaign’s impact illustrated how different digital channels like Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Google Display Network and a website contributed significantly to an effective IMC campaign for older adults, on top of traditional means like roadshows and brochures.