'How to increase public sector funding without costing the taxpayer a penny'

The massive public sector debt can be reduced by police, nhs, education and local authorities attracting advertising revenue from central government as well as from the private sector. There are massive under utilised resources which are attrctive adveerting mediums says Psas's Richard Longworth

[ClickPress, Tue Sep 19 2006] In today’s world we all rightly demand better education, a good health service, cleaner streets and crime to be dealt with. As the costs of providing these services continue to soar whilst the public purse tightens, maybe we need to find a new approach to public sector funding.

Central government spends an estimated £154m pa on advertising, which has quadrupled in the last nine years. This level of spend makes central government the third largest advertiser in the UK behind the two largest detergent manufacturers.

One can argue the rights and wrongs of the massive spend of taxpayers money, without doubt the government does need get its message out there on important policies such as tax credits etc.

Now here is the rub. The governments £154m pa expenditure (NMR) is almost exclusively going to the private sector via mega media owners such as Granada, News International. Which is fine as they supply the medium that’s gets to the audiences that the government is trying to reach. Some more targeted than others.

A little known fact is the government already has it’s own massive media organisation that is almost completely untapped as a way of reaching it’s target audience and an advertising source for itself. Using these resources will save the taxpayer and improve services ‘a sort of recycling of the taxpayer’s money’.

Where is this medium? In truth it’s several different media all over the country. Central government encourages every public sector organisation be it local council, county council, police authorities, primary care trusts to communicate with there ‘community’ i.e. the general public.

These ‘public sector’ bodies utilise a variety of methods for example magazines, websites, digital signage, sponsorship and exhibitions. Almost every council writes, designs, prints and publishes a regular magazine, not a sort of photocopied scruffy information leaflet but more often a highly credible professional publication. Sent to every household in the area 4,6 sometimes 12 times a year, they are a valuable document from a credible source containing relevant local information.

Tens of thousands of people walk through or visit council offices, a great opportunity for digital signage carrying government campaign advertising or even private sector. The cost of large screens are so low and the footfall in councils so high that they can be provided free of cost to local council and carry advertising as well as council or government messages.

PCTs, Police authorities and education establishments produce similar mediums to a very high standard and have an added relevance for advertisers keen to promote health, security issues be it central government or private sector advertisers. More often than not these media in the public sector already exist so the set up cost is already paid for out of the public purse so any advertising income comes at almost no cost, just ‘bunce’ as they say.

It’s estimated that if you totalled these public sector medium up they would have an available advertising total of £85m pa. It maybe a drop in the ocean but either saving £85m from the budget or encouraging £85m of private sector funds seems worthwhile.

So why doesn’t it happen already? Well it does but in a patchy individual council way, some do and some don’t. Public Sector Advertising Sales (PSAS) have set up a website specifically as a one stop, one source for all advertising media in the public sector – www.psasonline.co.uk. Working with Lgcomms, the local government association for communication manager, PSAS provides a site on which public sector managers as media owners can log available media completely free of charge. When the site is populated it will be promoted to central government and private sector advertiser to provide valuable and cohesive national media.

Re-cycling taxpayer money and using an under utilised resource is a small but significant better use of public funds.


Richard Longworth
Richard@psasonline.co.uk
07742012740
19/09/06

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