[Success factors in public healthy eating campaigns: a case study]

Public campaigns and interventions are rarely fully evaluated regarding their effectiveness. The analysis of past, successful activities can contribute to the future development of public campaigns and interventions for healthier eating.

The study of public campaigns and interventions for healthier eating aimed at identifying the underlying success factors and describing their relation.

Interviews were conducted with representatives of 11 cases that had been identified as especially successful in an earlier research step. The interviews were analysed with regard to possible success factors and the latter used to develop a model of success factor interrelation.

It was found that success of the cases was first, attributed to characteristics of the macro environment or to public private partnerships in the initiation of campaigns, second, to the engagement of social communities, elements of empowerment of the target group and the implementation of social marketing measures, and thirdly, in citizens adoption of the campaign and in accompanying structural changes.

The model and identified success factors underline that success can stem from three crucial phases: the set up of a campaign, the conduction and finally, the interrelation with the citizen. The model can serve as a guide in the future development of campaigns.