Scotland is Now campaign advertising: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01185
Date received: 19 April 2018
Date responded: 17 May 2018

Information requested

1. A list of all paid-for advertisements and audience targeting information used to promote the Scotland is Now campaign.

2. A list of all planned paid-for advertisements and audience targeting information used to promote the Scotland is Now campaign at the time of this request being handled.

Please include the campaign name, department/individual, audience targeting information (location, age, country, state, gender, languages, age groups, platforms, carriers. It may also include categories such as 'people who match' or 'keywords' for social media campaigns) in full, and the platform (ie. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc).

Please also indicate the full cost or expected cost for all activities in question 1 and 2.

Response

1. A list of all paid-for advertisements and audience targeting information used to promote the Scotland is Now campaign.

The Scottish Government used Chinese social media channel Weibo to geographically target audiences in Beijing and Shanghai during April 2018.

Please include the campaign name, department/individual, audience targeting information (location, age, country, state, gender, languages, age groups, platforms, carriers. It may also include categories such as 'people who match' or 'keywords' for social media campaigns) in full, and the platform (ie. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc).

The Scottish Government does not have the information on targeting per campaign advertisement you have asked for because the Scottish Government does not have access to the targeting tools which are used within Weibo.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

You may wish to note that targeting at an individual advert level, using the targeting tools available within social media advertising platforms, is developed, managed and held by the appointed media buying agency. The media buying agency is briefed on the target audience for a campaign and uses this information to plan and implement the targeting to deliver the adverts to the audience required by the campaign. This approach is taken in order to access their knowledge and expertise in best approaches for targeting as a result of working across their range of clients. The details of targeting across all campaigns involves the intellectual property of the appointed agency.

The contractual relationship between the Scottish Government and the media buying agency is set out in the Media, Planning Buying and Associated Services Contract. This contract protects the intellectual property brought to the work by the media buying agency and incorporates a service standard that requires the media buying agency to "take all reasonable action to monitor all staff and sub-contractors to remove the risk of political damage through oversight, acts of malevolence, etc. which may occur, causing embarrassment or legal action being taken against the Framework Public Body (Scottish Government)".

2. A list of all planned paid-for advertisements and audience targeting information used to promote the Scotland is Now campaign at the time of this request being handled.

At this stage, The Scottish Government has no planned paid-for advertising to support the Scotland is Now campaign.

Please also indicate the full cost or expected cost for all activities in question 1 and 2.

The total cost for paid-for advertisement using Weibo was £100,000, including Agency fees and campaign evaluation. Any additional investment during 2018/19 will be dictated by the results we achieve from the first phase of the campaign.

Budget planning beyond 2019 will form part of the forward business planning process.

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