Think what effective advertising could do for the Government

This financial year, the UK Government will spend more than £1.2 trillion (£1,200bn).

That’s a huge sum of money, and we all hope that decisions over even small parts of it are based on sound evidence.

Evidence that spending can achieve its targets, be good value for money, and win popular support.

For decades, the IPA Effectiveness Awards have awarded the best public service campaigns for providing such evidence in areas from health, crime reduction and public sector recruitment to marketing about the 2012 Olympics or the 2021 UK Census.

Work that responded creatively to complex and sensitive challenges by using emotion, humour and storytelling to change public behaviour in meaningful ways.

Only last year the OECD acknowledged the UK’s international reputation in public communications, citing innovation and excellence from our agencies in this field.

This national strength is now being put at risk. In August, the Scottish Government called a halt to all “non-essential” public service advertising in this financial year as part of emergency spending controls introduced by the Holyrood administration.

At the time, the IPA and the AA warned that this was a short-term decision that could damage the population both in the near and far term.

So when, as part of its Autumn Budget announcements, the Government in Whitehall says it expects “to save £85 million from reducing unnecessary communications spend this year”, my advice echoes that of one of the longest-running public service campaigns.

The Department of Transport’s road safety advertising, ‘THINK!’

Think before making false economies to comparatively modest communications budgets that have consistently been shown to pay back positively and to support much larger investments and policy goals of different governments.

And think before under-investing in one of the few tools that can address the very real challenges of building public knowledge and confidence about how governments work for the public’s benefit.

No-one would defend putting taxpayers’ money into genuinely unneeded or inefficient communications, especially at a time when public finances are tight.

However, advertising is already one of the more accountable areas of public spending.

A recent IPA award-winning case by MG OMD into government expenditure on paid media, estimated that in 2023 77 per cent of this spend was planned, measured and evaluated according to industry best practice.

Contrast this with the National Audit Office’s 2021 estimate that only 8 per cent of UK Government spend on large projects was subject to robust evaluation and almost two thirds had no evaluation arrangements at all.

For an administration with stated ambitions to reform public services and use technology to innovate, investing in effective advertising can be part of the solution, rather than the problem.

Over the years, campaigns have demonstrably helped public bodies meet their goals – from adopting what was at the time new technology to recruiting badly-needed key workers – while simultaneously entertaining us.

Take the classic ads by PHD, Dare and Elvis for tax body HMRC which featured veteran TV newsreader Moira Stuart. The one where Stuart appeared in kitchens and stair cupboards to tell people about changes to tax self-assessment for millions of Britons.

Accountants had predicted these reforms would bring chaos to the whole tax system. Instead, this well-liked campaign led to record numbers filing self-assessment online and on time, reducing HMRC’s ongoing costs from paper filing and late compliance. That campaign paid back more than £2 for each £1 invested.

Or consider the UK’s switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial TV in 2012. Beforehand, MPs were warned that switchover “had more potential for chaos and consumer revolt than any other civilian project in our history”.

After an extensive communications drive by MullenLowe London, MediaCom, Digital UK and the BBC Switchover Help Scheme, the goal of ‘100 per cent’ UK readiness for digital TV was reached ahead of budget and 93 per cent of respondents said they were comfortable with the switchover process.

The campaign returned at least £4.70 for each £1 invested. The bigger prize? It enabled the UK to sell unused analogue spectrum, raising £2.43 billion for the nation’s coffers.

From recruiting more NHS nurses and soldiers to persuading enough of us to complete 2021 Census forms, effective advertising has offered better value for money than alternative uses of government funds and made us feel more informed and positive about our public services and institutions.

Just think of what it could do for the Government.

For more information on how public service advertising works, see the IPA report - and case studies.