Online public health promotion at the local level: An evaluation of four local authority-led marketing campaigns.

Objective: Local authority-led online campaigns offer the possibility of targeted health promotion to connect local services and residents. This study assesses the evidence for medium (e.g., click-trhoughs) and high (off-line behaviour change) levels of public engagement with four local authority-led campaigns across a variety of public health promotions (sexual health, weight loss, and vaccination), online marketing approaches (social media marketing, search engine marketing, and programmatic marketing) and target demographics (language, gender, age, income, ethnicity) undertaken by a London borough local authority.

Methods: Employing quasi-experimental and observational study designs, engagement with local health services during the course of the campaigns was evaluated. The first three campaigns were evaluated based on an interrupted time series model of intervention assessment comparing outcome variables of interest during the campaign to periods before and after the campaign period. The results of the fourth campaign, an observational case-study, are discussed using descriptive statistics only.

Results: The analyses of the high engagement data for two of the three campaigns statistically assessed clearly supported the effectiveness of the campaigns. While the effect of high engagement could not be determined in the other two campaigns, they provide data that may be useful in online campaign design.

Conclusions: The evidence assessed in this study across a variety of platforms, health promotion initiatives, and population targets suggests that local authority-led online marketing campaigns for health promotion may be useful for increasing participation in public health programmes.