Asia Pacific Social Marketing Conference 2026

The Asia Pacific Social Marketing Conference (APSMC) is the premier regional conference of the Australian Association of Social Marketing (AASM) and represents the revitalised evolution of the long-standing International Social Marketing Conference.

The APSMC reflects a strategic shift to strengthen the conference’s Asia-Pacific identity, recognising the region as one of the world’s most dynamic and complex contexts for social change, policy innovation, and public wellbeing. While grounded in strong international traditions, the conference foregrounds regional relevance, cultural diversity, and systems-level social impact.

APSMC 2026 brings together academics, practitioners, policymakers, industry leaders, and doctoral researchers working across public health, sustainability, social equity, community resilience, and behaviour change in complex social systems.

The University of Western Australia is pleased to host APSMC 2026, reflecting its commitment to research that serves society, engagement across the Asia-Pacific region, and the advancement of translational social marketing scholarship.

Theme Rationale

Social marketing is increasingly called upon to address complex and interconnected social issues, including public health challenges, environmental sustainability, social inequality, community wellbeing, artificial intelligence and ethics and trust in institutions. These issues often occur simultaneously and interact across systems, sectors, and levels of society. The 2026 conference theme—Compassion, Complexity, and Change: Navigating a Polycrisis World—invites contributions that reflect on how social marketing can respond effectively and ethically in such environments.

Within this context, social marketing faces both heightened responsibility and opportunity. The 2026 conference theme foregrounds three interrelated imperatives:

• Compassion – centering care, dignity, equity, inclusion, and ethical responsibility in social change efforts.
• Complexity – recognizing non-linear dynamics, power asymmetries, institutional constraints, and unintended consequences within social systems.
• Change – advancing transformative, regenerative, and systems-level interventions, including the implications of digitalisation and artificial intelligence for social marketing practice, governance, trust, and social outcomes.

Conference Co-Chairs

Dr. Gauri Laud and Dr. Uwana Evers

Conference Tracks and Topics include:

Submissions are welcomed across a broad range of topics relevant to social marketing, including (but not limited to):

Social Marketing and Contemporary Social Challenges

• Public health and wellbeing
• Climate change, sustainability, and environmental behaviour
• Social equity, inclusion, and community resilience
• Crisis response, preparedness, and recovery
• Social Marketing, Social License, and Resource Communities
• Uncertainty, Geopolitical Change, and Vulnerable Communities

Ethics, Responsibility, and Inclusion

• Ethical decision-making in social marketing
• Power, vulnerability, and social inclusion
• Indigenous and culturally informed social marketing approaches
• Equity-focused program design and evaluation

Systems, Policy, and Institutional Contexts

• Systems thinking and social marketing
• Policy design, governance, and regulation
• Multi-stakeholder collaboration and partnerships
• Unintended consequences of social interventions

Digital and Emerging Technologies

• Digital and social media for social marketing
• Artificial intelligence and automation
• Trust, misinformation, and digital wellbeing
• Technology-enabled behaviour change

Advancing Social Marketing Theory and Methods

• Conceptual and theoretical developments
• Methodological innovation and evaluation
• Participatory, mixed-methods, and longitudinal research
• Translational and impact-focused research

Practice, Policy, and Knowledge Translation

• Practice-based case studies
• Co-design and community engagement
• Research–practice–policy collaboration
• Scaling and sustaining social marketing initiatives

Submission Types

• Full research papers
• Working papers / research-in-progress
• Conceptual and theoretical papers
• Case studies and practitioner reflections

Submission Guidelines

• Academic Submission Template
• Practitioner Submission Template

Important Dates

• Call for Papers Opens: 1^st February 2026
• Full Paper Submission Deadline: 30^th April 2026
• Notification of Acceptance: 20^th June 2026
• Early bird registration: 30^th August 2026
• Conference Dates: 21^st – 23^rd October 2026

Submission System

All submissions will be managed through the conference submission system.

Authors will be required to submit their papers via:EasyChair from 1 February 2026. 

Keynote Speakers (To Be Announced)

APSMC 2026 will feature an inspiring line-up of in keynote speakers whose work addresses compassion, complexity, and change in social marketing and related fields.
Keynote details and speaker profiles will be announced on the conference website.