Make TODAY Count!: Implementing a population engagement and culture change strategy

Social marketing and health communications campaigns built on game show and other reality television show models benefit from structural elements already familiar to and appreciated by the target population. Target populations in U.S. communities are drawn to: 1) individual and team competition, 2) prizes, 3) “real” life stories figuring everywoman/everyman protagonists, 4) “life can change in a day” scenarios, and 4) underdogs who come up from behind because they remain dedicated to core American values and believe that big ideas can be realized.

The “Make TODAY Count!” community health campaign in Colorado’s Weld County identifies healthy eating, active living, and access to quality affordable care as intrinsic elements of a sustainable high-yield economic growth cycle that is also dependent upon quality education, sustainable livelihoods, and the health of our minds and spirits. Using population engagement techniques inspired by television and social media models, Make TODAY Count! awards prizes and provides incentives for participation in a community-wide  awakening to the interconnectedness of personal health and general well-being and prosperity, and to the roles that individuals are empowered to play in making changes for the better. The campaign’s unique change agent curriculum, geographical population targeting, and calendar- and dashboard-driven plan for collective impact unite the allied efforts of all sectors of the economy in synchronized progress toward a more thriving county.

The Make TODAY Count! campaign was developed as the implementation strategy for the Weld County Community Health Improvement Plan and is led by the North Colorado Health Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit collaboration of partner organizations.