AI for Good? Expanding Our Understanding of Opinion Leaders in A Changing Digital Landscape

Amelia Burke-Garcia, Programe Area Director, Public Health, NORC & Dr Rebecca Soskin Hicks, Board certified, Stanford trained Paediatrician and Medical Consultant

There is strong evidence of the impact of opinion leaders in health promotion programs. Moreover, early work by Burke-Garcia suggests that social media influencers are the “opinion leaders” of the digital age as they come from the communities they influence and have built trust with them. Additional work done by Burke-Garcia suggests that they may be useful in disseminating credible and timely health information and prompting consideration of health behaviors. This plenary session will merge what we know about social media influencers as digital opinion leaders with these emerging technologies to propose the development of something we are calling Health Communication AI – perhaps the newest form of “opinion leader” – to do just this.

Playing together, leveraging multi sector collaborations

Prof. Jeff French, iSMA President, CEO of Strategic Social Marketing, Emeritus Professor at Kings College London and Brighton University

In this session Professor Jeff French will explore the benefits of building delivery coalitions across sectors and disciplines as a foundational element of Social Marketing strategy. The presentation will also set out some rules for partnering and collaboration, some do’s some don'ts and some examples of good practice.

Improving Lives: Determinants of Health for Native People & Cultural Competency

Tosheena Nez, MPH, Multicultural Communications Specialist, American Indian & Alaska Native Audience, ICF Next

Native American and Alaska Native people (hereafter called Native people), have the lowest life expectancy compared to white, black, and Hispanic populations. Given the low life expectancy and the health disparities impacting the lives of Native people, action is necessary to improve their quality of life. Taking a comprehensive approach to understanding the determinants of health among diverse Native communities is an informative action. By ensuring that cultural competency and nuances are included in all aspects of public health interventions and related efforts, innovative solutions that holistically uplift the health of Native communities can be created.

Reducing Gun Deaths & Injuries: A Social Marketing Approach

Nancy R. Lee, Affiliate Instructor, University of Washington, President Social Marketing Services, Strategic Advisor C+C

This presentation will summarize what Social Marketing strategies can and have been implemented to influence behaviors that reduce gun deaths and injuries.  As would be expected, this is not about increased laws and policies.  It’s about strategies to increase the 4Ss: Safe Storage, See Something. Say Something, Suicide Intervention and Social Equity. Each of these priority strategies are inspired by research that Nancy conducted in 2022, and then wrote about in her latest book Reducing Gun Deaths & Injuries: A Social Marketing Approach. 

Selecting and Unpacking Behaviors

Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Founder, CBSM

Too often, program developers fail to rigorously select and unpack the behaviors that their initiatives target. In this presentation, two aspects of behavior selection will be introduced: 1) determining which behaviors warrant being promoted, and 2) how to unpack a behavior once it has been selected.   Four selection criteria (impact, adoption, probability, and applicability) will be introduced that can be used to determine which behaviors are worth developing programs for.   In addition, the creation of behavioral chains will be introduced as a vehicle for unpacking behaviors.   Behavioral chains can assist with identifying audience segments and barriers to adoption of the selected behaviors.

Participatory Social Marketing to Promote Health Equity for Diverse Populations

Simona C. Kwon, DRPH, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

In her talk, Dr. Kwon will present strategies and examples from her work to applying participatory social marketing approaches to dissemination and implementation science to advance health equity across diverse communities and populations.

Understanding human responses through neuromarketing

• Mahmooda Khaliq Pasha, Associate Professor of Social Marketing, University of South Florida & Director, WHO CC
• Robert Hammond, Associate Professor of Instruction and Director of the Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation, Muma College of Business, University of South Florida
• Claudia Parvanta, Professor and Concentration Lead, Social Marketing Director, Florida Prevention Research Center Co-Director, World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Social Marketing
• Vijay Prajapati, Senior Social and Behavioral Researcher, Florida Prevention Research Center, University of South Florida
• Zachary Sanders, Graduate Research Assistant, Florida Prevention Research Center, University of South Florida

Step into the world of groundbreaking research and transformative initiatives with the Social Marketing team at the University of South Florida. In this keynote session, explore USF's innovative approach to pretesting campaign materials using eye tracking and facial expression analysis. Two examples of their work to promote responsible commuting and discourage vaping among young adults will be shared. Besides these examples, the authors will share how through this aperture, social marketing is gaining followers across multiple disciplines.

One Health: An epic call to action for us all

Ilze Melngailis, Senior Director, Business Council for the UN and Private Sector Engagement

One Health envisions unprecedented global collective action, and the problems - and solutions - ultimately come down to human behavior.  This session will explore the scope of the behavior change challenges and opportunities that underlie the One Health agenda:  In our increasingly interconnected world, how can each of us be agents of positive systems change and transformation to protect people and planet?