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Getting tested: A New Start
06 May 2005. Bizcommunity.com. Republished with kind permission of Bizcommunity.com
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The Society for Family Health (SFH) has launched a social marketing campaign for Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) aimed at changing the perception that HIV testing is only for the sick and encouraging all South Africans to regularly test for HIV.
Miriam Mhazo, New Start Network programme manager, says: "One of the most innovative and effective public health approaches is social marketing - which is the use of innovative marketing campaigns for social goals."
"Our aim is to make high quality health products and services such as condoms or VCT services conveniently and affordably available to everyone and to promote them in the same way commercial firms promote their products."
According to SFH, data shows that social marketing campaigns have significant impact on the markets in which they are rolled out. In Zimbabwe, New Start VCT clinics were rolled out in a country where people have far less access to HIV treatment and care than in South Africa. Despite lack of access to treatment, client flow data shows a marked increase of clients who visited the centres as a result of its social marketing campaigns.
SFH's subsidized condom range, Lovers Plus and Trust condoms, demonstrate the success of social marketing initiatives, with the total number of male condoms purchased increasing dramatically over the past nine years.
According to Mhazo, New Start hopes to complement the South African Government's successful VCT programme by attracting men. Government VCT clinics currently see mostly female clients: "Our research shows that men don't want to give their names when going for testing and New Start has a no-names-taken policy. We also hope to attract 'the worried well' who often don't go to clinics."
The advert starts with 'the hero' coming out of his home in Soweto and everywhere he travels during the day he is given the 'thumbs up' by those around him. The aim of this campaign is to get the message out there that everyone is doing it, everyone is getting tested - couples, the healthy, the sick, pregnant mothers, young, old and people of all races.
The strategy behind the advert was to normalise going for an HIV test and to get across the message that testing is for everyone. The television campaign will be backed up by outdoor media and public relations efforts.
"Many people still don't realize that HIV is everyone's problem. The most recent Nelson Mandela survey shows that HIV rates among white South Africans aged 25 and higher are 5.7%. This is 57 times higher than the HIV rate among UK residents aged 15 - 49 years of 0.1% according to UNAIDS."
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