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Rapid Rise in COI Research Spend
In the UK, the government's marketing and communications unit the Central Office of Information (COI) has published its annual report and accounts for 2008/9, showing an increase in spending on market research of almost 30% from £22.7m to £29.4m. In four years, spend has more than doubled from £13.2m.
Meanwhile spend on 'Strategic Consultancy' has grown from £7.9m in 2004-5 to £11.9m in 2007-8 and £18.5m in 2008-9. According to the report: 'Our growth in Research work has been partly derived from the Varney agenda and the development of Customer Insight Units within departments, which has been a growing phenomenon over the last three years. Demand for Strategic Consultancy services is being driven by a growing requirement for greater knowledge and skills to ensure effectiveness in marketing delivery, driven by the Engage agenda as it permeates Government.'
The report shows that government departments and public sector bodies spent a total of £540m on marketing and communications through COI during 2008/9, up 43% on the previous year, but COI says it has won 'record savings' of £241m for its clients and in 2008/09 'secured a 49.9% reduction in media costs measured using recognised industry benchmarks'.
In addition, it claims £50m savings have been made across a range of other services such as publications, direct marketing and events.
Increases in virtually all areas of expenditure from events and direct marketing to research and PR in part reflects the changing role of COI in providing more services centrally - the production of a number of rosters in recent months is one facet of this. Ad spend increased 35% to £211m, but digital marketing expenditure grew much quicker than the overall figure, by 84% to £40m.
COI does not have its own budget, but works for numerous government departments and agencies: the above figures reflect their combined spend through COI. COI's own running costs totalled £54.3 million in 2008-9.
Chief Executive Mark Lund comments: 'The need for government to communicate with the public is greater than ever as society faces challenges such as obesity, climate change and the recession. Government campaigns can help save lives and save money. Smoking rates and road deaths are now the lowest on record. The online tax returns campaign generated savings of £547m.' This means continuing investment in research, as Lund points out in his foreword to the report: 'We want to move campaign evaluation on to the next level so that our learning and cost effectiveness continue to improve. Continuing to build our expertise in customer insight will inform how policy is better refined and communicated across audiences, and we will further develop our use of digital engagement.'
Quotes in the document from Permanent Secretary Matt Tee hint at another agenda - that of further bringing together the disparate forms of data gathered. 'For example' says Tee, 'we might have various pieces of research on, say, 16- to 24-year-olds, on their health choices, their educational attainment, their economic circumstances. If we could draw on the sum of that knowledge and understand how these factors inter-relate, we would have deeper customer insight that could inform more effective communication with that group.'
Despite these multiple growth areas, the recession seems likely to put a temporary hold on the rapid spending rise of recent years: the report authors say the COI is 'planning a steady state for 2009/10'.
Web site: www.coi.gov.uk .
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