Two world leaders, Octagon in sports marketing and Healthy Interactions in health care education have formed a strategic alliance in Europe to deliver an integrated offering to clients.
Football clubs, the Olympics and hundreds of other sports organisations and their sponsors are increasingly working with their local communities to promote healthier lifestyles. This new alliance will enable Octagon to reach out with their clients to the community, using a range of health initiatives that are already proven to be successful when it comes to helping people gain a better understanding of their own health and take more responsibility for it. Healthy Interactions, who are now involved in more than forty countries worldwide, will be able to create health education programmes tailored to Octagon’s clients specific needs.
“Corporations that use sponsorship to improve individual and community quality of life are inevitably more successful in influencing, attracting and retaining customers and clients.” said Bob Heussner Senior Vice President of Octagon. “A growing number of sports governing bodies are putting in place programmes designed to improve the communities in which their events are held or their teams compete and are looking to their sponsors to support these important initiatives,” he said.
“Health care education programmes (we call them engagement programs), developed by Healthy Interactions are ideal for integration into a brand’s sports sponsorship activities,” said Paul Lasiuk, a founding partner of Healthy Interactions. “As an example, Olympic sponsors can create customised programmes which will engage their key audiences in supporting London 2012’s mission of inspiring a stronger, fitter nation which has a goal of an additional two million people being active by 2012,” he explained.
Octagon and Healthy Interactions are already working with corporations in the U.K., Europe and the Middle East that are seeking ways to activate their sponsorships of events, teams, leagues, NOCs, federations and other properties across the entire sports landscape. The cornerstone of the health care education programme is Healthy Interactions’ Conversation Maps™.
Conversation Maps are interactive education programmes using the power of small group dialogue and collaborative learning. Originally created to help people with chronic diseases improve the management of their condition and to positively change their behavior, Conversation Maps are being used in partnership with leading medical and disease associations, not-for-profit organizations, corporations, and healthcare professionals in 40 countries, and have proven effective in helping people not only retain information but also make long-term lifestyle changes, increasing their quality of life and reducing the impact of their condition.
“Conversation Maps can be developed for corporate sponsors to address a range of health topics, including nutrition, active lifestyles and fighting obesity, plus a host of programmes addressing sustainability which is of critical importance to many rights holders and their sponsors,” said Lasiuk.
“In a very competitive environment and particularly during these challenging economic times, marketers must derive maximum value from their sponsorship investments,” said Heussner. “Through this partnership of Octagon and Healthy Interactions, brands can establish a deeper and broader relationship with their various audiences. The timing couldn’t be better for bringing this opportunity to the marketplace,” he said.
(Source: Yahoo.com)
