The Public Sector: a common concern

Such is the emphasis on marketing within the public sector, the Central Office of Information (COI) is regularly one of the top three spenders in terms of marketing budget every year. And in Scotland, the Scottish Government is, without question, both one of the biggest investors in Scottish marketing and an enviable staple on any agency client list.

Just last month the Scottish Government announced its new – and expanded – roster of agencies. And still to be announced is the COI’s regional roster... Combined, these two shortlists could ultimately make or break a host of regional agencies over a tough 12 months.

“The public sector has always been important to marketing services agencies, but the present trend in the private sector to drive down costs has made it even more so,” says Stephanie Drakes, regional MD of 23red. “A statistic often cited was that public sector communications accounted for around 60% of all spend.

“Irrespective of whether the stats are right or not, we can be sure that public sector communications is valuable indeed, and that an agency portfolio with a public sector balance to it will be stronger.”

Hard times

Nowhere is this more so than in Scotland. Last month the Scottish Government unveiled its list of newly appointed agencies and, as a consequence, the hard times that lie ahead for many of those that didn’t make it on the list.

“There’s no question that the public sector has gained in importance to the marketing services sector over the past decade or so, not so much because the private sector has declined but because the public sector has grown,” says Whitespace creative director, Iain Valentine. “Let’s face it, over 25% of Scotland’s workforce is employed in the public sector, and increasingly communication about the work it is doing has become important.

“Nevertheless, three out of four jobs in Scotland are in the private sector, so although it is more susceptible to an economic downturn, that doesn’t suddenly turn it from hero to zero,” he counters.

This is a view echoed, in part, by The Union’s MD Ian McAteer, who outlines the often overlooked similarities between private and public sectors: “The public sector in Scotland is quoted as one of reasons the Scottish economy may weather the storm better than the rest of UK. Nationwide’s house price report showed Scottish house prices grew 0.1% last quarter, in contrast to the rest of UK.

“But when you think public sector, don’t just think drink drive or drugs. Public sector is FMCG brand building (Scotch Beef), visitor attractions/destination/event marketing (VisitScotland, Historic Scotland, Homecoming Scotland), international marketing (SDI), recruitment and much, much more. This is a mistake many people make – much of public sector marketing is cash generation and direct sales to the public.”

Over the last 18 months, Midlands-based Cogent Elliot has been making a concerted effort to target more public sector clients, recognising the growing importance of the sector, working on briefs that include The Big Drinks Debate and Visitbritain’s Olympics handover.

“But, while they [public sector clients] may be good payers, they demand just as much bang for their buck as the private sector,” says Nicola Newall. “On the most part, the clients we deal with have a real sense of responsibility that they’re spending tax payers’ money and they want to understand how they can optimise that spend.

“The main difference tends to be the number of stakeholders you have to consider. Although there tends to be multiple stakeholders in the private sector, there’s usually a fairly clear line of responsibility and accountability when it comes to marketing. In the public sector, the departments are not usually divided up in the same way, and many campaigns are actually a joint venture between a few different public bodies.”

“There’s often more levels of process just by dint of the fact that you’re dealing with marketing teams, policy teams, press teams and a whole host of affiliated organisations,” agrees Consolidated PR’s MD, Will Holt. “Because it’s public sector, campaigns can often become political footballs so there’s more of a need for issues management. Because it’s taxpayer’s money, evaluation and accountability has to be sharper than ever.

“Still, many organisations bang on about integrated working but only so many deliver. The Scottish Government, for one, works its rosters well with all disciplines working seamlessly together from the outset of a campaign. Private sector outfits could take a few tips.”

This isn’t the only tip that the private sector could take from its public cousin. “The organisational ethos in the public sector creates a very different mindset for employees to that of the private sector,” comments Andy McArthur, head of Barkers Social Marketing. “An organisation preoccupied with providing health care or volunteering mental health support does not function in the same way as one focused on sales, turnover, margins and competitive market share.”

More daring

It is not just the certainty of regular business that a government roster brings that is attractive to agencies, though, says 23red’s Drakes: “Creating campaigns for the public sector allows an agency to engage with the issues of the day – whether it’s obesity or tax returns.

“Often, because of the nature of the campaigns, an agency can be much more daring than they could if the creative was affiliated to a commercial brand – and public sector clients are often incredibly brave in their support for cutting edge creative work. This also allows us to produce work that has a huge impact on audiences and gets people talking about advertising outside of the marketing industry.”

Put simply, as many claim, this sort of work is often about saving lives, not shifting product.

As a newly appointed agency to the Scottish Government roster, Edinburgh-based Story is “buzzing” with excitement about the prospect of working with the Government and its partners, claims Sue Mullen, MD of the agency. “If you consider the range of Scottish Government partners that fall under the roster remit, then you can see that it offers us the opportunity in the next three years to effect real change on a diverse range of projects – everything from the environment and commerce to the nation’s health and wealth.”

“I think that it does your soul good to work on something that will make a difference to people’s lives,” agrees Maggie Croft, MD of design agency Stand.

However, she continues: “The work we do for the public sector can be quite challenging. Often we are working with relatively dry, complicated information and it is essential that it’s presented back in a way that allows the target audience to engage with it. The work needs to be well thought through with good navigation with clear messaging that is easily understood. We also need to be resourceful when considering the end product – we need to ensure it isn’t seen as wasteful.”

Because of these challenges, it is perhaps a commonly held point of view that agency staff prefer working on public sector work, but this is a little naïve, claims Whitespace’s Iain Valentine. “Life is a rich tapestry and most people thrive on a diet of diversity. It’s true that some public sector appointments can be extremely rewarding on an emotional level, such as the alcohol awareness work we’ve done, but projects for Homecoming Scotland are just as brand orientated as private sector work.”

This is a point that Carol Smith at McCann Erickson Communications House agrees with. “People talk about the cultural differences between public and private sector, and while this may have been a valid point five or ten years ago, the historic stereotype of bureaucratic inefficient organisations that struggle to engage with the commercial world is both inaccurate and incorrect.”

While it may be easy for the marketing industry to harp on about the importance of public sector marketing – after all, it is, as we have already alluded to, an important source of income to the industry – how do the public (the very people that are targeted by the work) greet it?

“There may be a certain amount of fatigue at ‘yet another government advert telling me to do this less or that more’ and some people may perceive such campaigns to be a waste of taxpayers’ money,” says Barkers’ McArthur. “However, at the heart of most public sector campaigns lies leadership. And it is the Government’s job to provide long-term leadership.”

This point resonates well with McCann’s Carol Smith. Inevitably some campaigns will attract criticism, she says, as being government propaganda or nanny state in their approach but the vast majority are founded on significant issues and well researched consumer insights.

“Of course, some people will feel certain campaigns are a waste of money, but that may be because the campaign is not targeted at them – or the issue it addresses doesn’t align with their values or lifestyle.”

However, this feedback has led to the public sector evolving its communications, utilising a number of new platforms to engage the public in the appropriate space.

“Different campaigns resonate with the public in different ways,” believes Greig Tosh, MD of Civic. “The public is sophisticated, diverse in terms of ethnicity, socio-economic grouping and age demographic. Very few campaigns successfully engage all of the people all of the time. Social media is presenting some new opportunities and challenges and e-democracy through Web 2.0 platforms is becoming increasingly important.

“These present opportunities to engage the public through potentially more cost effective and tailored campaigns, which have a greater reach and interaction with the audience, through social networks, blogs and fora as well as cyber communities who will become influential opinion formers to build links with.”

Finger-wagging

“Public sector advertising has evolved,” agrees Charlotte Thompson, a director at BJL. And not just in the medium of engagement, but in its tone and tactic too. “The big spend, finger-wagging TV spectaculars of recent decades are being replaced by more consultative marketing and real successes are being seen.

“High profile campaigns have had real impact on saving lives but much of the success is now emerging from long-term initiatives to change more complex lifestyle issues. The public sector seems to recognise it’s not enough to identify and communicate the problem – they need to intervene with meaningful services to help people help themselves.”

But, at the end of the day, does it all work? Really?

“Changing behaviour is a long-term process and for many public sector campaigns it is just too early to judge success,” claims McCann Erickson’s Smith.

“Take the government’s current high profile work on obesity. In the short to mid-term we will be able to measure campaign success in terms of awareness and uptake of schemes to lose weight, but understanding how many people actually succeed in losing weight will take much longer and this has got to be the ultimate measure of success.”

However, The Union’s MD Ian McAteer is not so cautious in his analysis. “Does the work make a difference? Of course it does. Calls to the Child Protection line are 10% ahead of target after its campaign; after the TV campaign, calls to the National Debt Helpline rose by 42% in just two weeks; The Organ Donation campaign saw a 299% uplift in registrations; and Historic Scotland’s Open Weekend saw visitors rise from 30,000 to over 120,000.”

The public sector will always be an important part of the economic mix to many marketing agencies, but to view the public sector as a sole source of future income could be a mistake. “Much like the private sector, the push for value for money and cost reductions in terms of volume of work in the public sector is clear,” says Andy McArthur at Barkers Social Marketing. “And, although cost cutting may follow a different approach to the private sector the end result is often the same.

“Massive injections of public expenditure into the economy of late is likely to mean that procurement will play an even greater role in all marketing projects. This will ensure increasing value for money and effectiveness against expenditure in a demonstrable way – an indicator which is healthy for all marketing agencies.”