Why Public Sector marketing differs from traditional forms of marketing
by Rosemary Walton
As marketers we are used to marketing products or services to create sales (i.e. profit-making) Public Sector Marketing is about Social Marketing and public engagement (i.e.non-profit), bringing about specific behavioural goals relevant to the public good and, as such, needs a different and more longer term approach and way of measuring. The Department of Health’s Change for Life campaign is a good example of this.
Public Sector marketing started life during the Second World War and helped get important messages out to the masses. While that objective hasn’t changed essentially; we probably all remember the flyers that went out to every single household in the country after the July 7th bombings telling us all to be vigilant and how to spot a terrorist; or the recent national swine flu campaign; the type of messages and the ways they are delivered have changed substantially as channels have proliferated and audiences fragmented over the years, to a lot of campaigns now being delivered via digital and social media methods.
It is vital to understand all of these and how they best fit into any public sector marketing campaign and that can only come from an in-depth understanding of the target audience. There is no way around doing the donkey work up front to thoroughly understand how best to reach out and engage with your target audience and often it is also needed to overcome some pre-conceptions many people working in the various public sector departments and Quangos have.
A Direct Mail pack for the DfES created by Red C
When Red C did a campaign to promote Foundation Degrees to employers in certain pre-selected sectors we recommended direct mail to senior HR contacts in companies in those sectors to support ATL advertising in key broadsheets only to be told that those senior people would probably be inundated with mail and wouldn’t open their own mail, but would have it opened by gatekeepers who would probably throw it away.
To gauge if this was true or not, we conducted an HR Managers In-tray research exercise where we asked senior HR personnel in the sectors we wanted to target to keep the contents of their in-tray for 2 weeks and report on it. We gave them a donation to their favourite charity for doing so. Surprisingly, we found that the majority opened their own post and in fact didn’t get a great deal and the mail they did receive was very bland, so direct mail that had relevancy to their sector and the issues they were facing and had creative cut-through was, in fact, the right approach to take.
We then had to overcome the pre-conception that nobody responds by mail anymore, but by phone or online so there is no point having a response device in a direct mail pack. Again we found that this was not the case and indeed a third of our responses came in by mail.
Another thing to be aware of with public sector marketing is decision by committee. Often you are dealing with civil servants in government departments who are not used to making decisions and standing by them, so will defer to other people, or you may find it has to go through a series of approvals even sometimes up to ministerial level, so be prepared to have to state your case time and time again, and try to keep true to your original vision, whilst everyone around you is trying to dilute it.
There is an art to copywriting and visuals too. Having to get your message across to people where English may not be their first language is common and having to make sure your creative approach covers all aspects of gender, ethnicity and diversity without again diluting it, is a key challenge that crops up time and time again.
CWDC Press Advert
When Red C worked on a campaign for the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) to encourage more people working in Nurseries to become qualified Early Years Professional and upskill the profession, developing a creative approach that painted a picture using newspapers of the future of what the children of today could become with the help of a trained professional in the early years, we painted a picture of a young female Prime Minister in 2045, a male prize winning author and a female ethnic Nobel Science Prize winner in 2060. All shot against backgrounds of the future using CGI.
Cost efficiencies and environmental considerations are also vital with public sector marketing. It is important not to be seen to be wasting public money but to show how it is being used efficiently and effectively. This will become ever more important as public sector marketing is an area targeted for budgets cuts after the next election. And anything produced on behalf of the public sector has to have the very highest environmental credentials. If you re dealing with any government department they will probably require you to have PAS2020 – the new environmental standard for the direct marketing industry.
For more information read the excellent COI publication How public service advertising works, visit the National Social Marketing Media Centre at www.nsmcentre.org.uk, or contact us
Tags: Advertising, Central Office of Information, Children’s Workforce Development Council, Copywriting, CWDC, Direct Marketing Campaign, Environmental Considerations, Government Advertising Agency, Inbound Marketing, Manchester Advertising Agency, Manchester Direct Marketing Agency, Marketing, National Social Marketing Media Centre, Public Awareness Advertising, Public Sector Marketing, Social Marketing, Visuals
