Health Promotions and Marketing

The Health Promotions and Marketing Department aims to gain exposure for the vision and purpose of the Institute. This is achieved through building and creating relationships that will ensure success, such as with The Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA), UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (ESSM), Commercial partners, Media and others. The Department also ensures that the scientific credibility of the work within this portfolio is conducted at the level to which the Institute aspires.

Health Promotions achieves this through:

• Workshops on health or sport-related topics.
• Health journalism - for magazines, newspapers and web-sites
• Editing articles and obtaining relevant articles on health issues.
• Organizing & give presentations.
• Involving the media in special events, press conferences etc.
• Media Liaison
• Providing answers to health and fitness-related queries on the www.health24.co.za and www.woolworths.co.za websites.
• Being a SSISA health representative for television, radio and media interviews.

Workshop Series

Most year's we run a series of workshops leading up to the Gun Run and to The Two Ocean's Ultra and Half-marathon. Other topics include Men's and Women's Wellness and other health or sporting related topics.

Article writing

Articles include:

• Several articles for the Discovery website every month.
• A monthly article for Old Mutual's internal magazine.
• Training guidelines for major sporting events (usually internet and newspaper).
• Articles on health issues in magazines such as Shape, Fair Lady, Cosmopolitan, Women's Value, Cape Style, Femina, Runner's World & Men's Health.
• Sports-science related topics in journals such as Modern Medicine, Modern Pharmacy, TLC
• Media releases prior to events at the Sports Science Institute and for research subject recruitment for ESSM research studies.
• Contributions made to www.health24 website and others.
• Reviews of articles to be published by magazines to ensure they are scientifically accurate.

Presentations on a healthy lifestyle

Health Promotions is involved in setting up and presenting many health-related presentations to general public, including groups such as:

• Schools
• Companies as part of the WP Retirement Council workshops. These include many major companies such as ABSA, Caltex, Engen, Foschini etc.
• UCT
• Church groups and common-interest groups
• Investor's Club
• Other organizations requesting guest speakers

Other event organization

Health Promotions is always looking for opportunities to promote health via events, hence the development and implementation of various events, such as:

1. "Invest in your Health" campaign (2004), a six-week education programme with kfm as the major sponsor leading up to a Western Province Championship 10km road race and 5km walk.
2. Sports Science Institute Open Day
3. Involvement with the The Annual Discovery Vitality Fitness Convention

Health Promotions and commercial partners

Health Promotions manages much of the Woolworths account, from developing strategies with Management, to implementation and marketing of key events. Current projects include the successful My Schools Project, in-store Health Checks, many workshops, Open Day and the "Invest in your Health" campaign. Similarly, we work on projects with Bromor and Discovery and other companies that need our services on an ad hoc basis.

Health Promotions and ESSM

With ESSM doing such integral work at SSISA, Health Promotions attempts to publicise information they generate that is of public interest, for the purpose of:

1. educating the public
2. promoting ESSM
3. strengthening the link between ESSM and SSISA