Communications Plan

1.   Introduction

The Middlesex-London Health Unit is committed to providing healthcare and medical resources for Londoners. Our programs, from nutrition and food safety to environmental health, are designed to help the London community live a healthy life free from disease and injury. Our programming is educational, but also fun and inclusive for families of all backgrounds.

Middlesex-London Health Unit’s newest campaign is centered around reducing parents' screen time, with the goal of increasing parents’ participation in family-based activities in east London by Dec. 2025. The purpose of this campaign is to decrease parents’ screen time through family-based activities, which will improve the health of families overall through increased quality time.

7.   Situational Analysis

Internally, the Middlesex-London Health Unit has collaborated with local non-profits, including Let’s Get Cookin', the Boys and Girls Club, the City of London Recreation and Sports Division, and Family Centres and EarlyON Program, to provide a wide diversity of after-school programs. While these initiatives primarily target children, we can make effective use of these existing programs by expanding their reach to incorporate family-based activities that engage both parents and children. This would address the issue of parents turning to their screens during children’s extracurriculars, enhancing the well-being of the family.

Our partner organizations offer a great variety of extracurricular options across multiple locations, which provide children with opportunities to pursue their interests while allowing busy parents the flexibility to participate. These programs are also curriculum-connected, offering themed content for different age groups. For example, a grade-five student might focus on actions and self-concept, while a grade-six student might learn about the benefits of inclusion, respect and acceptance. This structured progression appeals to parents who care about their children’s holistic growth. Additionally, the wide geographic distribution of these programs reduces the mobility barrier for parents to participate in such activities with their children.

Also, our campaign is well-positioned by partnering with public libraries in East London, which serve as accessible community spaces for our workshops and extracurricular activities. These libraries not only are well-equipped with meeting rooms and learning spaces to accommodate gathering, but also frequently host informational talks, providing an ideal opportunity to integrate our workshops into their schedules. In terms of transportation, East London libraries are relatively accessible by public transit. For instance, the East London Branch of Public library is only 260 meters from the nearest bus station, ensuring easy reach for community members without personal vehicles.

Externally, the Government of Canada invests more than $4.8 million to support healthy living and increased physical activity programs for children, youth and their families, recognizing the potential health problems associated with a lack of extracurricular activities. CTV News and other local news have revealed the danger of long screen time for children’s health and the need to promote more extracurricular activities to London parents, creating a consensus on our campaign’s goals.

In East London, we recognize a potential high demand for family-based activities and workshops. Although the City of London offers many extracurricular options, a study revealed an inequality in access to extracurricular and school activities in low-income areas, indicating an imbalance across geographical locations. Our campaign specifically targets East London to address this need and support the community’s high demand for accessible programs.

In low-income areas, the only school activity reported by a greater proportion of schools was breakfast or nutrition programs. Families in these neighborhoods have limited options and often face affordability and transportation barriers that restrict the families’ access to extracurriculars. We partner with local community centres and libraries to address these issues, offering free or low-cost activities and workshops within walking distance, specifically tailored to meet the needs of our target audience. We also promote at-home and budget-friendly activities to further engage families in our campaign.

Although parents have a consensus on the benefits of participating in extracurricular activities, they still have two main concerns: a lack of direct incentive to participate and language barriers that limit access for newcomer families. Considering that 24.8% of the city’s population was born in a country other than Canada and 19.1% of that immigrant population arrived in London between 2016 and 2021, English itself could be a challenge that immigrant parents have to overcome. To encourage participation, we organize regular contests with gift card prizes as a direct incentive. To address language barriers, we partner with public libraries and community centers, which offer accessible information and support for diverse language groups.

We do not view existing programs as competition. Our initiative specifically targets geographic areas underserved by other initiatives, with activities designed to be accessible and affordable for our target audience. Additionally, our primary goal is to promote extracurricular engagement among families and enhance the well-being of both children and parents - not to generate profit. Even if families who see our social media ads ultimately join programs from other providers, such as The City of London’s Recreation and Sports division, we still meet our objectives: raising awareness of the importance of extracurricular activities, encouraging acceptance of our message, and increasing participation in these beneficial programs.

Strengths:

• Established partnerships with NGOs, public libraries and local community centres that expand our campaign’s reach, offering access to a wide range of resources.

• Geographical accessibility for low-income families as we offer programs across multiple community centres in East London and work with libraries that are easily accessible by public transit.

• Free or low-cost program options for local families to participate without financial strain

• A diversity of activities which ensure customized experiences for families with different background, work time and hobby.

Weaknesses:

• A lack of incentive for parents with long work hours to participate in our program

  ○   This could be an opportunity to promote at-home activities that fit their schedules beyond regular community activity hours.

• Dependence on external resources and space provided by other initiatives

○   This could be an opportunity to build our local network, fostering deep community engagement and strengthening trust and loyalty toward our organization.

Opportunities:

• Traditional media coverage highlighting the benefits of extracurriculars, combined with our partnered organizations own promotion of after-school programs, will help attract more parents to participate in our campaign.

• Parents who attend our workshops could potentially discover other programming and resources offered by public libraries that they are interested in, which helps with the overall campaign goal of reducing parent screen time and encouraging more meaningful parent-child quality time.

Threats:

• We could only organize a limited number of activities if our funding is limited.

○   We may turn this into an opportunity by recruiting more volunteers or partnering with new NFOs to address budget constraints, thereby expanding our reach and enhancing the impact of our campaign.

• Parents who only have limited spare time may prioritize other activities over extracurriculars, viewing them as non-essential.

○   We may turn this into an opportunity to attract new participators by educating parents about the long-term benefits of extracurriculars and offering flexible options to parents.

8.   Risk summary

The first risk identified for this campaign is library funding cuts. To run family-based activities that we have promoted, the library requires access to crafts, equipment, and other resources. Hosting workshops and activities on a regular basis could place a strain on library resources. We can mitigate this risk by focusing on low-cost, resource-efficient programs that optimize existing supplies, such as using recycled materials or simple craft items. Additionally, we can explore alternative funding opportunities through local community partnerships and seek additional sponsors to help supplement our campaign.

Another identified risk is outreach saturation. Since our campaign is focused on East London, we may conduct too frequent outreach to the same audience or send promotional messages too similar to those from other community organizations, leading to audience fatigue and a negative impact on our goals. To mitigate this risk, we can segment our audience into primary, secondary and tertiary groups and diversify our outreach strategies to target different subgroups. For instance, we can tailor our messaging to specific social media platforms, posting images of happy families on Instagram to attract parents and sharing our impact and achievements on LinkedIn to engage potential sponsors. Additionally, we can track engagement rates and adjust outreach frequency based on feedback. 

Lastly, we identify a risk of gradual participant drop-off after the first few activities, since maintaining parents’ interest over time could be challenging. Given the fact that parents in East London may have long working hours and tight schedules, turning their awareness and acceptance into sustained action will pose additional difficulty to our campaign. We can mitigate this risk by frequently introducing fresh, dynamic and up-to-date activities, incorporating new topics or themes to keep interest high. Additionally, we can foster loyalty by creating a supportive, closely-connected community, making participants reluctant to leave the program.

Target Audience (Customer) Analysis

What are their needs and wants?

Programs and activities that benefit east London families’ health and wellbeing which are:

• Affordable

• Easy to access (e.g. sufficient parking, nearby public transit etc.)

• Multiple programming options offered (activities that are offered to accommodate parents who work late, but still early enough for young children)

What factors influence them?

A local parent’s knowledge of prolonged screen time usage, and the likelihood they will be influenced by our campaigns, will vary based on factors such as:

• Geographical location (e.g. are there any community centres and public libraries that offer family-based activities near them?)

• (Dis)ability (e.g. do the activities accommodate parents and/or children with disabilities?)

• Employment status (e.g. do these parents have time to drive their kids or commute with them to places that offer family-based activities?)

How and why will they react to our messaging?

• Ideally our target audience will react by attending family-based activities that are organized by community centres and public libraries and do the at-home activities

• The goal is to encourage parents to do the activities by emphasizing the influence that they have on their children 

• They are likely to react out of care for their children

What are their sources of media (traditional, social, e-news, newsletters, etc.)?

• Younger parents are more likely to receive their news through social media such as Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram rather than traditional media

• Parents of school-aged children are likely to receive printed handouts through schools, hence a desire to promote through that type of channel

• Printed posters in coffee shops, grocery stores and any other community spaces that parents frequent could also be effective

Secondary Audience:

• Sponsors of NFOs that we partnered with and will be interested in our campaign in the future

Tertiary Audience:

• City of London's recreation and sports division

• Local newspaper and other media coverage

Producers:

• Middlesex-London Health Unit employees. The workshops and the family-based activities running smoothly are largely dependent on the retention of the employees

• Community centre and library staff: while the community centres and libraries run their own family-based programming, there might be times when Middlesex-London Health Unit will collaborate with community centre staff and library staff on activities.

Enablers:

• Provincial and municipal administrative bodies – specifically those who approve/regulate high-level decisions on city programs and dictate how much public funding is allocated to community centres and public libraries 

• Local news media have the potential to be enablers depending on whether they report on our programs with a tone that brings positive attention to them

• Schools have the potential to be enablers should they assist in promoting our programs to families 

Limiters:

• Competition from community centres and libraries that offer family-based activities in other parts of London can be a limiter on our program enrollment. However, this is not particularly threatening as our programming will be based in east London and therefore, be more accessible for east London families. Moreover, as long as parents are engaging in family-based activities, however they do so, they are reducing their screen time which is the ultimate goal of our campaign

Audience Stages of Development:

Non-publics:

• Adults with no children and no caregiving responsibilities

Latent Publics:

• Parents who have never considered family-based activities and have given no thought to how these activities could reduce their screen time

Aware Publics:

• Parents who know that increased screen time is bad and that they should be reducing their screen time, but who think it’s not important enough to act upon

• Parents who lack the time to spend it on family-based activities due to work and/or other commitments

Active Publics:

• Parents who have their own self-imposed screen time limit

• Parents or people who with parents (i.e. education staff, community leaders) who advocate for the benefits of reducing screen time and substituting it with other activities to other parents

10.   Key Messages

For our latent publics and awareness objective:

Find a new form of fun - it’s easier than you think!

• Engaging in activities with your child is critical for improving their cognitive development and sense of connection

• Your child only lives once - Small moments create good memories

• Children learn by mimicking and playing - engaging with them teaches valuable skills like creativity and communication

For our aware publics and acceptance objective:

Pause and play, parents!

• Quality over quantity - regardless of limited time or a limited budget, there are plenty of easy activities that can help strengthen a family bond

• Help your child feel listened to and teach them the value and importance of relationships

• Activities can be simple - What feels natural to you and your child will make family quality time easy

For our active publics and action objective:

Switch off your screens - lead by example

• Encourage engagement in community activities and support your child’s connections and creativity

• Family time is a part of daily life, make it a priority to enjoy time together

• Keep consistent - establish activity routines to enrich childhood experiences

11.   Strategies and Tactics

Objective #1: Objective for parents of children aged 3-12 in east London to have an effect on awareness, specifically to increase comprehension about the benefits of family-based activities for their children by 60 per cent by Dec. 2025.

Strategy #1: Distribute information through advertising

• Tactic #1: Use social media paid ads (Instagram and Facebook) to increase exposure to our campaign

• Tactic #2: Partner with elementary schools to distribute physical handouts and brochures to parents

Strategy #2:  Use regular workshops to educate parents about the benefits of family-based offline activities as an alternative to screen-based activities

• Tactic #1: Have a representative from the Middlesex-London Health Unit give a talk at each public library in East London about the links between parent screen-time to their children’s health

• Tactic #2: Lead an interactive Q&A session to prompt curiosity and provide parents with accurate information from a healthcare professional

• Tactic #3: Provide a handout to encourage parents to engage with the idea of reducing their screen-time

Objective #2: Objective for parents of children aged 3-12 in east London to have an effect on acceptance, specifically to increase interest in family-based activities in 50 per cent of parents in east London by Dec. 2025.

Strategy #1: Engage the community emotionally to increase their interest

• Tactic #1: Gather testimonials from families who enjoy doing offline activities together and share through Instagram, Facebook, and local media outlets

• Tactic #2: Collaborate with schools and encourage teachers to speak about the campaign, leading children to share their interest with their parents

Strategy #2: Introduce accessible family-based activities to the community

• Tactic #1: Host one free family event at a public library to kick-off the campaign and promote the fun and ease-of-access of family-based activities

• Tactic #2: Distribute small activity checklists to give families ideas of what they might do at home to reduce their screen time

Objective #3: Objective for parents of children aged 3-12 in east London to have an effect on action, specifically to increase the number of participants in both community-led and at-home family-based activities by 25 per cent by Dec. 2025.

Strategy #1: Continuous advertising to promote more community-led activities

• Tactic #1: Continue digital advertising to promote specific activities at local libraries and community centres

• Tactic #2: Advertise family-based activities via posters at libraries and community centres

Strategy #2: Organize regular family-based activities at local community centres to increase parent participation

• Tactic #1: Host free parent-involved activities at local libraries including crafts and literacy activities

• Tactic #2: Host free active family activities at community centres including sports and cooking/baking activities where applicable

Strategy #3: Use workshops to provide parents at-home and on-budget activity options

• Tactic #1: Provide an “at-home activity starter kit” to parents to kickstart their creativity with what to do at home, as well as to aid families on a budget

• Tactic #2: Allow parents to form connections with one another to strengthen community bonds

• Tactic #3: Continue educating parents about the health benefits of strong face-to-face family bonds

12.   Evaluation

To evaluate our communications plan, we will use a few different measures.

We will keep track of our KPIs from social media advertising to assess whether our quantifiable objectives were met. Comparing metrics from the beginning of the campaign to the end will indicate if there was an increase in overall awareness towards the comprehension of the effects of parent screen-time on pediatric health.

Community activity attendance will also be tracked by the public libraries and community centres that host them. This will determine whether our action objective was successful, indicating if our introduction of community-led family-based activities has been effective in helping us reach our overall goals of reducing parent screen-time.

As well, there will be a survey sent out to parents who engage with our digital advertising and choose to participate in our focus group. A post-campaign survey will be shared by the end of December 2025 to measure how effective our campaign has been in resonating with parents who want to benefit their children’s health as well as their own. This will also help us track how many parents were consistent with their efforts to reduce their screen-time and increase family-based activities in the home during times where they are not attending community events.

If our campaign does not reach our initial objectives, surveys with our focus group will provide beneficial insight as to which tactics were favoured in the community and where improvements can be made. As the campaign encourages community efforts, direct feedback from parents is valuable for refining our strategies and efforts to successfully achieve our goals.