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IPA Coi Hamish Pringle

Government marketing cuts 'cavalier', says IPA boss Pringle

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

August 5, 2010 | 4 min read

Hamish Pringle at the IPA has spoken exclusively to The Drum about the recent announcement that 40% of jobs are to be cut at the COI. Not surprisngly, Hamish isn't a happy man, accusing the Government of taking a cavalier approach to saving money.

The news broke on Tuesday that around 290 of the 740 marketing jobs at the COI will be axed as part of a voluntary redundancy programme, which begins immediately with a 90-day consultation.

The news has been greeted with caution by the IPA, with Hamish Pringle outlining his feelings to The Drum, saying that he finds the way that the Government is approaching these necessary job cuts as "frustrating" and "unintelligent."

Pringle told The Drum: "We find this whole process highly frustrating. Not because we don’t understand the need for cuts and expenditure throughout the country, but we are finding the manner in which it is being talked about in reference to our industry, frankly, quite offensive at times. 


"There isn’t an understanding and if that’s the case that means that a cavalier approach is being taken which is a scorched earth approach. That is to say cut everything regardless just because we have to cut everything. That is a rather unintelligent way of going about things.

"Let’s say that you are going to cut the COI’s budget by 40 percent and that a big chunk of the programmes are going to have to go and you then apply some criteria as to which ones go and which ones stay. Everybody understands that and while they won’t like it, they will understand the process.

"But why does Frances Maude, Minister of the Cabinet Office, say that the days of spending million of pounds on expensive projects are over? Why does he say that? Why does he suggest that the whole thing has been a waste of money?

"Our vested interest in this is that we know, because we run the Effectiveness Awards, how proven the results of these Government campaigns are.

"Two years ago we published a book called ‘Public Advertising Works’ which was a compendium of the learning of around 39 COI campaigns. We had Sir Gus O’Donnell at the launch event saying very nice things about what the COI was doing and now suddenly we have someone else saying, effectively, that the whole thing is a waste of money. That is unacceptable."

However, despite his frustrations, Pringle says that he does not intend to make life any more difficult for bosses at the COI and is aiming to work closely with them in the coming months.

He said: "We have a pretty good working relationship with the COI and we have fairly regular contact with them. The last thing that the COI needs is the IPA giving them a hard time.

"We’re trying to support them through this very difficult period and come up with ideas. We have recommended to Government that they can still be maintaining agency relationships and hopefully that is a useful thought for them.

"We’ve also made some suggestions to the Government requiring payment by results contracts for agencies working on their accounts. We’ve made some suggestions on that and it seems that they are working on that at the moment and have looked at our existing guidelines on payment by results. I’m sure they’ve looked at other people’s stuff too.

"So, we’re trying to be as helpful as we can to the COI and trying to make the best of a very difficult situation."

To read The Drum's full interview with Hamish Pringle visit the MiNetwork website.

IPA Coi Hamish Pringle

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