PREP4BLUE Webinar Series: Community Based Social Marketing: An Introduction

This webinar will introduce the theory and methods of Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM). Mission Ocean policy documents and Horizon Europe Work Programmes make consistent reference to the necessity of taking a “whole of society” approach and integrating citizen participation into Mission activities at every level. A key aspect of this will be to influence positive behaviour change. For Mission-funded projects, this will need to be done in a disciplined, measurable way.

The cornerstone of sustainable and healthy communities is behaviour change. Sustainability requires that individuals and businesses engage in diverse actions, such as reducing pollution, increasing water and energy efficiency, increasing voluntarism, and protecting native species. Research demonstrates, however, that the traditional approach of using ads, brochures, or websites to encourage behaviour change simply doesn’t work. A new approach, CBSM, is being used effectively by public and private organisations around the globe.

This webinar will take examples of CBSM being used as a tool across marine and freshwater-related initiatives to discuss how integrating this approach into Mission Ocean project proposals will help to achieve the Mission’s ambitious goals in relation to coastal and river ecosystem restoration and pollution elimination, based on a leveraging of citizen activity in support of the Mission.

About the trainer: Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Community-Based Social Marketing

For over three decades, Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr has been working to incorporate scientific knowledge on behavior change into the design and delivery of community programs. He is the founder of community-based social marketing and the author/co-author of three books on the topic. One of these books, “Fostering Sustainable Behavior,” has been recommended by Time Magazine and has become requisite reading for those who deliver programs to protect the environment. Doug is also the author of the Fostering Behavior Change Minute newsletter, which is read weekly by nearly 20,000 subscribers. His work has been featured in the New York Times and he is the recipient of the American Psychological Association’s inaugural award for innovation in environmental psychology and the World Social Marketing conference’s inaugural award for contributions to the field of social marketing. He is a former Professor of Psychology and currently an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria and Royal Roads University in Canada. More than 75,000 program managers have attended workshops on community-based social marketing that he has delivered internationally.