Government's social brands will “crash” if disinvested in
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has said the Government’s plans to freeze its advertising spend until 2015 will cause the Government's 'social brands' to crash.
IPA general director Hamish Pringle (pictured) said: “The reason that commercial companies keep spending advertising money – some £18 billion annually on media in the UK alone – is that they know the brands they own are amongst their most valuable assets, and brands, like planes, need fuel to keep flying – disinvest and they glide, stall and then crash. The same is true of the Government's 'social brands'.”
“We hear there's already evidence of declines in key metrics and once this data is in the public domain we'll be able to calculate the opportunity cost of this coalition policy in terms of its adverse effects on citizens”, he added.
The coalition government has slashed its ad spend by more than £130m in the last nine months and is to introduce a new approvals system to ensure only essential campaigns run for the next four years. As yet “essential” has not been defined.
A freeze of the government’s annual £540m ad budget, allowing only essential campaigns, saved £133m since May and was due to expire at the end of March.
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude and chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander have unveiled a range of measures to continue restricting government marketing spend however.
In advertising and marketing only "essential" expenditure is permitted until 2015 and campaigns valued at £100,000+ will require central approval.
"If you are prepared to look, billions can be saved from overheads and unnecessary costs at the centre of government," said Maude.