RTE’s Operation Transformation took to our screens this week and to the streets and parks of Ireland this Saturday. The five leaders have been selected and provide a mix of lifestyles and histories that deliberately resonate with big numbers of people.
There is a new element this year, adopting a programme introduced in Oklahoma City where the population is being urged to lose a million pounds over the course of the year. An online tracker will help provide encouragement to those who take part in the challenge as well as a wealth of additional data on the health of the nation.
Professor Niall Moyna who has been featured many times in Sport for Business was involved in last night’s programme turning the science of health into something that can be understood by the general public.
RTE have worked in a clever boost this year with fitness expert Karl Henry giving viewers an exercise to do in front of the TV during the ad break. Not so good for turning on the kettle but more will have watched the ads during this programme than most, many of them cursing that there should be one last one and hoping for the relief of the sponsors bumper indicating the programme was back and their exercise burst could come to an end. Smart stuff in many ways.
The sponsor that benefits is Safe Food Ireland which makes sense from an independence and awareness perspective. It might though have been an opportunity though to bring in a commercial as opposed to a state partner or even extend the sponsorship to include multiple brands as in the GAA Championship coverage.
It would certainly make for an interesting debate.
This is one of the big midweek hits of the year for the station and has a strong commercial as well as public service benefit.
Sport Ireland through it’s local sports Partnerships and the new Dublin City Sport and Wellbeing Partnership is central to the organisation of the walks which it is anticipated will get tens of thousands of people walking this Saturday.
The main walk in Dublin starts out from Kilmainham Gaol at 10am, tying neatly together another main strand of 2016 while there will be 5K walks at over 50 locations across the country.
