An 'Ad Council' for the UK - Can it Work?
Government spending cutbacks have already led to the COI's, the Central Office of Information, (the governments advertising co-ordinator), ad spend being cut by 52 % in the current year. The COI has also cut 40% of its staff . Inevitably there are rumours as to the continuing viability of the COI in its present form. It is hardly a surprise therefore that the Cabinet Office is investigating a new model for government advertising in the UK, which would replace the COI with a US style Ad Council.
Is a not for profit private 'Ad Council' such a bad thing? More to the point would such a body ever be able to replace the COI?
Some trade bodies and agencies on the COI roster are naturally concerned at losing lucrative government campaign work, and there has been justifiable criticism that the government is asking its roster agencies to work for nothing. However we are all experiencing difficult times and it is remarkable that government advertising spend under Labour was a staggering £450 million in 2009. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office Minister in charge of Whitehall’s efficiency drive, told the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham in October 2010 "We can do things very differently in future. Instead of paying more than £200 million [a year] to buy ad space in the media, why shouldn’t we use publicly owned channels, such as government websites to deliver public-service messages" and more controversially the BBC.
The latest revelation of a US styled Ad Council is a step to pass the cost of public service campaigns to business. But the US Ad Council is a very different entity to anything the UK has ever experienced.
The US Ad Council promotes the benefits of the US system to other nations but there is an awareness of the draw backs of a privately funded system, not least because it is less efficient than one where media is bought and audiences can be targeted. The Ad Council relies on donated media airtime and therefore the message may well be broadcast at the least opportune time or to the wrong demographic audience. This is something the UK government needs to appreciate and why a privately funded Ad Council could never replace a fully funded COI.
So what would a privately funded COI mean to advertisers and agencies?
The COI spent £531 million on marketing communications in the year up to March 2010, and approximately £200 million on traditional ad spend, according to Maggie Brown writing in the Guardian. In June a freeze was placed on all campaigns excepting the most crucial pending the outcome of the Maude review. Clearly the colossal spend of the COI and its infra structure costs can not continue in the environment the country now finds itself.
The US Ad Council has been highly effective, but it operates in an entirely different manner to the COI. It is an not for profit private organisation and created campaigns that have inspired several generations of Americans since 1942
with its first war advertisements, such as the slip of the lip campaign. In 2009 $2 billion of media space was donated to the Ad Council and those donating over $150,000 included: The Coca-Cola Company; Google;
Johnson & Johnson; PepsiCo, Inc; The Procter & Gamble Company; Time Warner Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. Ad agencies such as Ogilvy and Mather; Saatchi and Saatchi, Leo Burnett; Publicis; Y and R; Draftfcb are amongst those that also contribute to the Ad Council.
The USA has a history of civic philanthropy first developed by Benjamin Franklin in the 1730s. The expectation of big business to continue that philanthropic tradition appears stronger than in the UK. One has only to look at recent contributions such as the Gates Foundation's campaigns to eradicate malaria and blindness; billionaire investor Warren Buffet's donation in 2006 of $31 billion to the Gates Foundation; Perelman's $70 million in charitable donations in 2008 alone.
That is not to say UK is not generous, but our Victorian golden age of civic philanthropy has not been equalled in recent times, though there are some notable exceptions. In 2008 three quarters of top executives questioned for a report by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) said that they believe philanthropy is: " an effective way to meet consumer’s rising expectations of social responsibility on the part of business " but CECP also state that:
"A significant gap still exists between leading companies in corporate philanthropy and the average state of practice".
In the advertising sector there are examples of industry taking the initiative, such as the Drinkaware campaign and Media Smart (of which I am a Director). This is the industry initiative to teach 6-11 year olds media literacy and the project, now 7 years old and reproduced across the EU, is supported by Ofcom but funded entirely by business.
Even if the UK advertising industry rises to the challenge of creating a privately funded Ad Council, and it would be a pretty poor state of affairs if it couldn't, this would not be replacing like with like. The government will need to appreciate the fundamental differences, the impact it would have on smaller agencies whose businesses rely heavily on government campaigns and the fact that broadcasters and media owners may well not feel in the mood to donate free media space at the present time.
Ian Twinn, Public Affairs Director at ISBA, put it succinctly in Marketing Week when he said "It is unlikely that British business will want to pick up a 'voluntary' tab to fund government messaging across the board."
It looks like rough times ahead for public service advertising but the ad indu
stry might like to start considering how it should respond to the governments stated interest in a privately funded body. The 'change4lifecampaign' is one example of some success at a co government and food and drink industry funded campaign, but such co-operation is not going to work for other public service messages. More to the point the government is slashing its funding and looking to advertising agencies and present funders to step in, leaving ad agency M&C Saatchi who handle the account is a difficult position. Indeed one may argue such a move may discourage other businesses from getting involved in the first place.
Agencies and advertisers will need to see some benefit, other than the purely ethical one, to start paying for government advertising if a US styled Ad Council is to stand a chance of success. In the short term perhaps a hybrid system may be the solution.
Lawyers at Reed Smith, whether in the United Kingdom, in Europe, in Asia or in the United States, are providing more than 55,000 hours of pro bono service to clients annually on a vast range of community projects and pro bono cases, which in billable time is worth $26 million. Marina is a Director of Media Smart. For further information about this project across EU see http://www.mediasmartworld.com/index.php
