Games4Life to tap into ‘summer of sport’
The Department of Health is hoping to exploit interest in the Olympics, Wimbledon and European football championships with a summer marketing campaign that encourages people to stop watching events on TV and get active.
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The Games4Life activity – which stems from anti-obesity initiative Change4Life – will encourage people to complete a questionnaire to generate a personalised programme of physical exercise.
Questionnaires will be distributed through retail partners including Asda, Aldi and JJB Sports as well media partner The Sunday Mirror.
TV, digital, press and social media activity will encourage people to fill in the questionnaires.
Elsewhere, a mobile app, “The Fun Generator”, offers parents over 100 indoor and outdoor activity ideas for kids. Games4life branding will also be displayed at the 10 big screen outdoor events hosted by the BBC during the Olympics.
Sheila Mitchell, marketing director at the DoH, says that the activity, its “biggest ever” push to encourage physical activity, is “riding the wave of the summer of sport”.
“The message is: don’t just watch sport on TV, get active,” she adds.
The launch of Games4Life comes as commissioned research by PCP shows 93% of the population will be watching some coverage of the summer’s major sporting events on TV during the next three months. More than half will snack on crisps while watching, according to a survey by CensusWide on behalf of the DoH.
