Call for papers

Social Marketing Conference in Koblenz, Germany – June 26-27, 2008

The Institute for Management at the University of Koblenz-Landau (Germany) will be hosting a Social Marketing conference. The conference theme is “Effectiveness of Social Marketing Campaigns”. The conference will provide a forum for presenting and discussing theoretical and empirical social marketing research, as well as an opportunity to network with other social marketing scholars from different countries.

The conference will be held 26–27 June 2008 at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Koblenz, Germany. This venue is located in the beautiful German town of Koblenz, where the river Rhine meets the Moselle. The conference will be in walking distance from the river Moselle and not far from Koblenz’s beautiful old town (see http://www.koblenz.de).

Conference topics

Governments in an increasing number of countries have stepped up their effort to address harmful consumer behaviour, such as excessive drinking, smoking and binge-eating. In line with their commitment for action, governments and public-policy agencies use advertising and other marketing instruments to highlight health risks associated with certain types of consumer behaviour. For example, anti-smoking advertisements are used to dissuade smokers from consuming tobacco. However, relatively little is known about the return on (social) marketing and, indeed, the effectiveness of such measures in terms of instigating behavioural change. Therefore, competitive papers addressing the Conference theme – “Effectiveness of Social Marketing Campaigns” – are encouraged.

In addition, papers may cover any of the following topics:

- Return on advertising in social marketing
- Marketing and public policy
- Positive consumption campaigns (e.g., healthy eating, recycling, safe sex)
- Demarketing campaigns (e.g., anti-tobacco, drunk driving)

The conference is organized around two tracks, each with a Chair. The following tracks are proposed: “Meeting Future Challenges in Social Marketing” (Chair: Louise Hassan, University of St. Andrews, louise.hassan@st-andrews.a.uk), “Carrot and/or Stick” (Chair: Edward Shiu; University of Strathclyde Business School; edward.shiu@strath.ac.uk)

Competitive papers

All competitive papers for the 2008 Social Marketing Conference will be subjected to a two-stage, double-blind review process which complies with standard academic research conference guidelines. Authors may direct their submission of a competitive paper to one of the two tracks.

Following this competitive process, all papers accepted for presentation will be published in the Conference Proceedings. The Proceedings will be edited by the Conference Chairs, and will be produced on CD-Rom. Proceedings will be provided to all Conference delegates, and will be available for sale to the general public.

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be submitted electronically, and must be received by Sunday, 11 May 2008. Submissions should be three (working papers) to five (competitive papers) pages in length (single spaced). Authors will have the opportunity to provide an abstract of the special session presentation for the Conference Proceedings. The style requirements follow those of the Journal of Marketing.

If you require more information on competitive papers, or their submission guidelines, please contact the conference chair, Gianfranco Walsh (walsh@uni-koblenz.de).

Submission format

Manuscripts in their final stages should be submitted as competitive papers. Manuscripts representing work that is still in its formative stages should be submitted as working papers. Each manuscript should be no longer than 3-5 single-spaced pages, including bibliography and tables. Authors of competitive papers will give 20 minute presentations of their work.