The Campaign for Action on Family Violence. Effective social marketing: complex issues and innovative practice

Family violence is a significant social problem in New Zealand causing poor economic, social and health outcomes for victims and witnesses of violence. The economic cost for New Zealand is estimated to be at least NZD$1.2 billion, per annum (Snively, 1994). By 2005, growing concerns were being raised about the level of family violence in New Zealand influencing the Government to establish a multi agency taskforce to advise on how to address the issue. The Taskforce Plan of Action (Ministry of Social Development, 2007) highlighted the Campaign for Action on Family Violence - the It’s not OK campaign –as an approach to support attitude and behaviour change in New Zealand. The Campaign was developed as a multi-layered integrated approach to address complex social change. By developing a range of activities to support change at different levels of the system, supported by social marketing good practice, the Campaign has seen success in its visibility, ability to empower and affirm change and support media to report with greater accuracy.