Meeting the leaders of social marketing

The first World Social Marketing Conference took place in Brighton (UK) on Monday the 29th and Tuesday the 30th of September 2008, where professionals and experts of the discipline shared their experiences.
Philip Kotler, father of the social marketing, opened the event with a lecture about social marketing strategies to reduce poverty in the world.

At the Conference, the Local Health Service of Modena and the Philosophy Festival presented the poster “Knowing is better: exercises of preventive medicine. A social marketing project for diseases’ prevention”. The project was described to Philip Kotler who appreciated it.
The photo on the left shows Giuseppe Fattori (Local Health Service of Modena) together with Philip Kotler in front of the poster.

Click here for more information about the project “Knowing is better” (in Italian).

Nancy Lee, one of the greatest experts of the discipline, gave two speeches: in the first she highlighted the opportunities of the marketing mix through the presentation of three case-studies (Tobacco Cessation, Pedestrian Safety and Litter Prevention); in the second, she described a social marketing planning path in ten steps.

Gerard Hasting, professor at the Stirling University and Director of the Institute for Social Marketing, suggests some interesting considerations about the key role of the brand development for social marketing activities. Case study of his presentation is the European Union Campaign “help” against smoking.

Edward Maibach, professor at the George Mason University and at the Centre for Climate Change Communication, discusses about: Can social marketing make climate change a solvable problem?

A presentation of François Lagarde – social marketing consultant and trainer – develops some reflections about how to successfully integrate social marketing into organizational culture. The rich list of bibliographic references suggests further deepening for people who are particularly interested in the issue.

Alan R. Andreasen, one of the best known experts of S.M., spoke about the history and the future perspectives of social marketing. In particular he highlighted the importance that social marketers should become prouder about what they should do and that they promote the “social marketing” brand.

Some pictures from Brighton:

Go to the official web site of the Conference.