Table 1.

Objectives of, and approaches to, food marketing monitoring across stages of the policy cycle

Stage of policy progress	Policy actions at this stage	Objective of monitoring food marketing	Recommended approaches for data gathering or generation
Agenda setting	Identify, describe and analyse the problem	To raise awareness of the need to protect children from unhealthful food marketing in the local context To demonstrate the use of wide-ranging media and settings through which children are exposed to food marketing and the marketing techniques used	Gather information from: • Population surveys of child nutrition and health status • Any local monitoring studies of food marketing exposure, power and impacts on children • Global evidence on food marketing exposure, power and impacts on children Generate new information (as needed) using: • Small samples of media and settings, to give an indication of marketing exposures and power • Crowdsourced data from children or parents, to give examples of marketing exposures • Case examples of industry marketing campaigns, to give an indication of the media, settings and marketing techniques used, including emerging trends
Policy formulation	Develop policy options and strategies, negotiate and formulate the policy	To gather data on food marketing exposure and power, to serve as a baseline for future evaluations of policy impact To inform the policy parameters, including the priority media, settings and marketing techniques to be restricted	Gather information from: • Any local monitoring studies of food marketing exposure, power and impacts on children that align with the monitoring approaches outlined in policy’s Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Generate new information (as needed) using: • Detailed assessments of food marketing exposure and power across priority media and settings
Policy implementation	Implement and enforce the policy	To assess policy compliance and enable policy enforcement	Generate new information using: • Ongoing monitoring to detect potential policy violations in media and settings in which marketing is restricted • A system of public complaints to identify potential policy violations
Policy review	Monitor policy compliance, evaluate policy impact, report on outcomes	To evaluate the impact of the policy on reducing children’s exposure to food marketing and its persuasive power	Generate new information using: • Repeat detailed assessments of food marketing exposure and power across priority media and settings, using the same methods and measures as baseline (used during policy formulation)