Scottish Child Payment marketing costs: FOI release

Information requested

The total spend by the Scottish Government on marketing the Scottish Child Payment, and;

• How much of this was spent on outdoor advertising?
• How much of this was spent on Radio advertising?
• How much of this was spent on Print advertising?

Response

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance we do not hold the information you have requested. We can provide Scottish Child Payment specific spend between November 2020 and March 2021. From March 2021 onwards, Scottish Child Payment was promoted as part of a wider ‘Five Family Payments’ campaign. We are unable to breakdown the spend on this wider campaign by benefit. To be as helpful as possible, we have provided the ‘Five Family Payments’ campaign spend.

Please note that Scottish Child Payment and the Five Family Payment marketing is paid for through Social Security Scotland and appears in its accounts.

Costs for Scottish Child Payment paid for marketing between November 2020 and March 2021:

• Print: £21,701.54
• Radio: £12,345.13

From March 2021, we consolidated our paid for marketing aimed at parents and carers of young children to a single ‘Five Family Payments’ campaign. This campaign promoted Scottish Child Payment and also Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment, Early Learning Payment, School Age Payment and Best Start Foods. The spend on Five Family Payments marketing between March 2021 and the date of your request was as follows:

• Radio: £18,272.75
• Television: £46,234.00
• Video on demand: £9,260.00
• Social media and online advertising: £62,001.80

Across the Scottish Child Payment and wider Five Family Payments activity, we have invested a total of £169,815.22 in paid for marketing. All figures are inclusive of VAT.

Please note that paid for marketing is just one way in which we promote this payment. We work with media outlets to secure news coverage and features, we promote it regularly though our social media channels and we provide intermediaries with information to disseminate on our behalf.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.