Over 33,00 Aussies of every age and fitness participated in News Corp’s Health of the Nation campaign, which ran for 16 weeks across the company’s state mastheads with dedicated content from Body+Soul.
The national campaign was launched to inspire Australians to get up and get moving and was presented nationally in partnership with Woolworths. The campaign was also supported by The a2 Milk Company and sport retailer, rebel.
Over two months, the campaign saw health-seekers walk more than 1 million kilometres, complete 190,000 meditations, cook 800,000 healthy recipes, and lose a collective total of 7,200 kilograms.
84% of participants were female, Victoria was the most active state (followed by NSW), and 50 to 60-year-olds were the most active age group, while 192 people who participated were over the age of 80.
Kerrie McCallum, editorial director – premium food, health and travel told Mediaweek the campaign was gratifying and inspiring – she participated too.
“It showed that there’s an appetite for making things easy and accessible, advocating for Australians as well as for their health,” she said.
“We have that role to play as a health network and it’s something we wanted to do from the outset, and I think the success of the campaign is proof that our expectations were exceeded on every metric.”
Kerrie McCallum
Melbourne-based trainer Sam Wood joined forces with the campaign to create a free eight-week Health Club and McCallum said he was one of the main reasons why the campaign was successful.
“By making it accessible, we made it appealing to any age group and the beauty of Sam’s workouts is that you can do them anywhere in the privacy of your home, gym or park.
“He interacts with consumers so well and makes it so easy and not judgemental.”
Sam Wood – Health of the Nation
Prior to the launch, a survey was commissioned for the campaign that came from more than 3,000 Australians. It showed 80% of Australians conceded they need to be more active, 6 out of 10 Australians believe they are overweight, and 40% are ‘junk food junkies’.
The study also found only 50% of parents play outside with their children for 1-3 hours each week.
The campaign ran on healthofthenation.com.au and across The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD), and Sunday Mail (SA).