Stealth marketing and physical activity

This aims of this project are twofold (I) to examine the feasibility of using a Bait-and-Tease stealth marketing intervention to increase office-based employees’ physical activity and reduce sedentary time in the workplace and (ii) to conduct a pilot to assess the potential of the study for large-scale study implementation.

The stealth marketing intervention used environmental and sustainability messages in office environments emphasising pro-environmental behaviour. Advertising in the form of posters included messages about saving energy by not using lifts and recycling. Environmental champions or ambassadors were recruited to support and reinforced the messages.

Observations of the distances and time walked in response to the environmental messages were recorded and compared to baseline physical activity measures.

Preliminary findings showed that physical activity increased through responses to pro-environmental behaviours messages and in post-study workshops participants considered it to be an acceptable and necessary way to promote environmental messages with a benefit for raising physical activity levels.

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Professor Louise Mansfield - Career History Louise Mansfield is Professor of Sport, Health and Social Sciences and Research Lead for Welfare, Health and Wellbeing in the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies.  Her research focuses on the relationship between sport, physical activity and public health and wellbeing. She is interested in partnership and community approaches in sport and physical activity and issues of health, wellbeing, inequality and diversity. She has led research projects for the Department of Health, Youth Sport Trust, sportscotland, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, Macmillan Cancer Support, Public Health England and Sport England. She sits on the editorial boards for Leisure Studies, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport and is Managing Editor of Annals of Leisure Research. Louise is known for  is known for developing evidence to inform policy and practice.

Professor Danae Manika - Danae Manika (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is Professor of Marketing at Brunel Business School and Acting Executive Dean of the College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences (CBASS). Previously, Danae was Deputy Dean of CBASS and Associate Head of Brunel Business School. Before joining Brunel University London, she was Professor of Marketing at Newcastle University Business School, where she led its London Campus as Academic Group Head and held the Deputy Director of Research role at Newcastle University Business School. Danae in the past has also held academic positions at Queen Mary University of London, Durham University and the University of Texas at Austin; and is currently Visiting Professor at Newcastle University and Queen Mary University of London. Prior to her academic career, Danae worked as an Account Planning Intern in advertising agencies such as Latinworks in Austin, TX, and DDB in New York. She obtained a Ph.D and a M.A. in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. Honours in Marketing from University of Stirling. Danae’s recent research has been published in journals such as: Journal of Service Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Psychology and Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Business Research, European Management Review, and International Business Review, amongst others. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Danae’s research focuses on effective message construction for behaviour change within the contexts of health, well-being and the environment. She is involved in various consultancies (e.g., Harrow Council, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, RECOUP, Global Action Plan, Texas Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition), and her research has been supported by £414,000+ of funding (e.g., CRUK, EPSRC/Innovate UK, NERC/NCAS, RED, and Arrow/ERDF). Danae is Section Editor for the Journal of Business Ethics (section: Marketing Ethics; FT50 journal), and Associate Editor (AE) for Business and Society and the Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, while in the past she was AE for the Journal of Marketing Management (2017-21). She is also currently on the Editorial Review Boards of:Technological Forecasting & Social Change, and Journal of Marketing Management; with guest editor experience across multiple top journals. Danae also has experience as: funding reviewer for Cancer Research UK (2015-19); and track chair for the Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing Congress Conference in 2023, the Transformative Consumer Research Conference in 2021, and the European Social Marketing Association Conference in 2016.

Related Research Group(s)

Marketing and Corporate Brand Management - Our research-active faculty are engaged in cutting-edge applied scholarship across a broad spectrum of marketing areas.

Marketing and Corporate Brand Management - copy - Our research-active faculty are engaged in cutting-edge applied scholarship across a broad spectrum of marketing areas.

Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifecourse - Inequalities in health and wellbeing in the UK and internationally; welfare, health and wellbeing; ageing studies; health economics.

Project last modified 21/11/2023