Food Standards Agency sign up youth specialists Dubit for first teen lifestyle site launched as a social networking application

Youth specialists Dubit have been appointed by the Food Standards Agency to create a campaign to promote healthy living to teens aged 13-17 years old.

Key to Dubit’s appointment was their insight and understanding of the teen audience as well as experience in bringing about behavioural and attitudinal change.  The initiative involves the creation and management of the first online magazine that exists only as a social networking application across Facebook and Bebo.

The Food Standards Agency needed an initiative that was innovative and exciting in order to communicate healthy eating messages to the target audience, encouraging teens to choose healthier diets thus reducing long-term diet-related diseases.  An emphasis is to be placed on 13-17 year old boys whom it is felt are less conscious of, or interested in, the health benefits of sensible eating.

Dubit understand that attitudinal and behavioural change is not brought about by limited campaigns so wanted to embed these messages in teen lifestyles. Boys media is extremely fragmented but social networks – in particular Facebook and Bebo - were the one medium that engaged boys and girls en masse every day, regardless of their background or interests.  As a lifestyle site that contains general as well as specialist content i.e. gaming, music and sport, it fits in with teens daily activities and provides relevant content they can pass on to their peers that is of interest to them, stimulating discussion and debate within their peer groups.  Alongside and embedded into the content are key messages and content provided by the Food Standards Agency which is supported by all of the young celebrities featured on the site.

To evaluate and measure the campaign Dubit’s research department have benchmarked teens attitudes, knowledge and awareness of healthy eating and will continue to track this over the campaign period.  The initial research involved interviewing a representative sample of over 1,000 13-17 year olds across the UK, covering subjects including dietary concerns, nutritional awareness and food choice influences, which will also inform the activity moving forwards.

Kate Frankum, Head of Marketing at the Food Standards Agency, said: “We are delighted to be working with Dubit on such an exciting and unique initiative. We are always looking for new ways to interact with young people. I hope that teenagers will be more willing to engage with our healthy eating advice when we communicate with them in an online environment.”

Robin Hilton, Director at Dubit commented: “We’re thrilled to be working with the Food Standards Agency on such a worthwhile campaign.   The research and marketing teams at Dubit have worked closely on this campaign, ensuring that the initial research and insight remained part of the creative process throughout.  This has led to a really exciting and genuinely new way communicating with young people and is a great example of what research can do”.

The application, ‘Blink’, has just been launched to the public, with a supporting marketing campaign. The site content includes recipes, competitions, quizzes, personal healthy eating plans and user generated content. The site will also include interviews with inspirational youths who have excelled in a variety of fields such as sport, acting, fashion and art, to which the young users will be able to relate.

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