In view of the upcoming election in Sweden the local advertising trade magazine Dagens Media did a thorough study of how Swedish MPs view advertising and what they believe advertising contributes to society.
At roughly the same time the Premier League kicked off in the UK. These two parallel yet seemingly unrelated events have jointly inspired this piece.
It is no surprise that most MPs interviewed are no great fans of advertising and mainly see it as something that interrupts the content on TV. In spite of this, the political parties will invest several hundred million SEK in advertising and marketing communications as part of their election campaigns. And add to this the many hundred million SEK that various government bodies invest each year in order to persuade Swedes to think and do various things, or simply to inform us about the services they offer to us citizens.
I will not enter the discussion about how successful our authorities and government bodies are in their communications; instead, the focus for this piece is how good they are at actually buying these services from various agencies and consultants.
On one hand, the public sector is bound by laws stipulating that contracts have to be submitted to public tender.
On the other hand, there is a lot of criticism about how these tenders actually work (see examples of articles in Swedish here, here, here and here).
The critics argue that there is a big difference between buying bespoke consultancy services for communications programs and, for example, buying a cleaning service where the delivery can be specified in great detail in advance.
Sometimes one wonders if the evaluation is done by the communications department or the purchasing unit. And even worse, it often seems that the main (only?) criterion is the hourly rate rather than the agency’s competence, quality and service offer. Yet, the law is the law… But maybe there is a solution?
This is where the start of the Premier League becomes relevant.
I will gladly admit to being a committed anglophile; a person who finds great pleasure in lukewarm hop-laden beer with pleasantly little fizz, salt-and-vinegar-flavoured crisps and a countryside whose inhabitants seem to get murdered at an alarming rate (albeit in quite a charming way) in a variety of TV crime series. And not least, a wonderful self-government system for advertising best demonstrated by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority).
However, another British speciality is unfortunately almost unknown here in Sweden: I refer of course to the wonderfully clever approach to managing the public sector’s advertising and communication needs known as the Central Office of Information (CIO).
The CIO is ”the Government's centre of excellence for marketing and communications”. However, the CIO is a long way from Orwell’s “big brother” society. It is a procurement agency, but above all also a highly professional strategic resource for government bodies that want/need to communicate with the public.
To be the head of the CIO is one of the most prestigious positions a UK communications professional can aspire to. The current head, Mark Lund, was for example previously the chief executive and co-founder of Delaney Lund Knox Warren (DLKW) as well as chairman of the Advertising Association. And even if the CIO has had its fair share of staff cuts due to the recent recession, Mark Lund heads an organization with some 500 staff focusing on a number of key areas such as:
- Procuring agency services for government bodies. With a total media spend of over £ 200 million these contracts cover a multitude of agencies in a variety of disciplines. But above all, it is a procurement service that looks at agency competencies, not just hourly fees.
- Helping government bodies create effective communication programs, especially by being a strategic resource for creating great communication briefs and providing professional advice in how to connect with consumers and influence their attitudes and behaviours.
- Developing communications programs in-house for government bodies, especially when it comes to PR and on-line.
- Developing relevant and insightful ways of measuring and evaluating the communication activities and thereby improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the work.
The latest annual report from the COI shows for example that they have improved the communication effectiveness for their government clients over the last five years by between 3.5% and 10% each year.Even more interesting is the knowledge acquired over the years in how to influence and change people’s attitudes and behaviours, documented in a number of reports such as this and this.
Would it be too much to ask for a similar organisation here in Sweden as well?
Then maybe we could avoid the debate each time a government body procures communication services and ends up signing a contract with an agency with ridiculously low hourly rates.
We might even get some politicians who actually see the benefit of advertising and marketing communications, for the public sector as well as for businesses, and who appreciate the contribution efficient marketing communications (and those of us that produce it) has for society and economic development.
Irrespective of who wins the Swedish election in a few weeks.
Stockholm 2010-08-29 Mats Rönne, mats.ronne@gmail.com
