Online, digital and radio advertising spend: FOI release

Information requested

1) The amount that the Scottish Government has spent on

-online/digital advertising
-Local radio advertising* in each of the last five financial years.

2) how much was spent on local radio advertising during the 6 weeks leading up to the GeneralElection on 1212.19.*

3) A list of the 10 largest recipients of Scottish Government advertising spend.**

*Upon clarification of the term "local radio" you stated you would like all radio spend.

** Also upon clarification regarding whether you meant the media owners that receive the largest amounts of our spend through our media agencies, or the agencies that receive the largest amount of our spend; you requested the top 5 of each.

Response

The answer to your question is:
1)

Channel	1st Apr 15 - 31st Mar 16	1st Apr 16 - 31st Mar 17	1st Apr 17 - 31st Mar 18	1st Apr 18 - 31st Mar 19	1st Apr 19 to 29th Feb 20	Total
Digital Display	£464,799	£311,284	£407,744	£725,993	£650,425	£2,560,245
Paid Social	£211,483	£264,044	£270,417	£472,563	£467,698	£1,686,205
Paid Search (PPC)	£77,466	£62,993	£46,530	£105,397	£109,213	£401,599
Digital Audio (DAX & Spotify)	£0	£5,950	£2,543	£82,187	£191,317	£281,997
Adserving and Reporting	£35,948	£14,858	£13,960	£25,166	£26,174	£116,106
Creative Services	£0	£15,286	£22,116	£134,842	£319,624	£491,868
Radio	£569,869	£460,949	£287,588	£619,279	£683,007	£2,620,692
TOTALS	£1,359,565	£1,135,364	£1,050,898	£2,165,427	£2,447,458	£8,158,712

2) To clarify, the Scottish Government's spend on Radio advertising would have been unrelated to the General Election as no new announcements are made during a pre-election period in order to avoid influencing party politics.
Radio spend from 1st November to 12th December was £160,934.

3)

Top 5 Media Owners	Spend from 1st April 15 to 29th Feb 20
STV	£3,348,011.00
Bauer	£2,072,452.69
Facebook	£1,286,447.73
Talon Outdoor	£1,074,339.33
Channel 4	£895,478.00
Top 5 Agencies	Spend from 1st April 15 to 29th Feb 20
Carat	£9,895,223.48
Leith	£5,450,525.64
Republic of Media	£4,487,024.13
Union	£2,968,687.52
The Gate	£2,180,129.48

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