Government spending on advertising is expected to fall by almost
pounds 10 million to pounds 60 million during Labour’s first year in
office.
The forecast for the 1997-98 financial year by the Central Office of
Information suggests the Labour Government will not launch a barrage of
campaigns and will be constrained by its decision to stick to the
Tories’ public spending limits during its first two years in power.
However, COI officials say their estimate is provisional, because some
Labour ministers have not yet considered their ad budgets.
Peter Buchanan, the COI’s director of marketing communications, said the
pounds 60 million figure included an element of new business which he
hoped the COI would win from public bodies outside Whitehall
departments, such as quangos.
New figures show the Government’s ad budget in the year which ended in
March rose to pounds 69.4 million from pounds 63.7 million in the
previous 12 months.
Departments which boosted their publicity budgets included the
Ministries of Defence and Trade and Industry, while those which spent
less included the Environment, Home Office and Inland Revenue.
Buchanan said the overall rise in spending was ’a vote of confidence in
the COI’ following a decision to allow departments to break away from
the body and run their own campaigns.
None opted to do so.
The COI’s figures suggest it has been more successful than comparable
Government bodies at meeting performance targets. Its ’customer
satisfaction index’ for advertising, based on marks out of ten awarded
for each piece of work produced for Whitehall clients, rose from 7.44 to
7.86 in the past year.
The figures claim the COI won discounts worth pounds 29.8 million on
media buying when the savings are measured against ad agency benchmarks,
obtaining a media value of pounds 91.8 million from an actual spend of
pounds 62 million. Discounts are worth 39 per cent on press buying, 31
per cent on radio, 26 per cent on posters and 24 per cent on television.
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