Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 8 February 2010.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on the advertising campaign to position direct.gov as the nation's website; how much of this expenditure has been allocated for payments to (i) Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy and (ii) celebrities appearing in the campaign.
Directgov has the potential to enable Government to make substantial savings in shifting from traditional to digital channels. For those savings to be realised, it is vital that the public are aware of and trust Directgov as the Government's official website. The aim of the campaign is to increase awareness so that Directgov is the first site people think of for Government information, and one which they both trust and recommend to others. Early results have shown the campaign has been a success with a record number of 614,000 visits on the first day of the campaign which was then followed by another 663,000 the next Monday. During the period of the campaign to date, year on year visits to the Directgov homepage have risen by 104 per cent.
The cost of production and airtime purchased to date combined is £2.05 million. We cannot detail the specific costs of the production of the advertisement with Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, as this would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of Directgov.
Regarding payments to celebrities appearing in the campaign, we are unable to provide information for individual actors, musicians or other performers. This information is market-sensitive.
Negotiations on the involvement of these artists in the project were conducted by the COI and all of the above agreed to participate in the advert for a fraction of their normal commercial rate.
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