Information regarding Fire Alarms advertising campaign: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much money did the Scottish Government spend on adverts promoting the new fire alarm rules which came in on February 1?

2. List all of the adverts the Scottish Government took out, what dates they were active and what format they were in?

3. Price for each advert?

4. All correspondence between the Scot Gov and the Scottish fire service about the new fire alarm system?

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

The answers to your questions are as follows:

1. How much money did the Scottish Government spend on adverts promoting the new fire alarm rules which came in on February 1?
The total cost for the Fire Alarms advertising campaign was £394,812.72.

2. List all of the adverts the Scottish Government took out, what dates they were active and what format they were in?

Media	Media Channel	Size	Date
TV	STV/C4 Scot/ITVB Scot	30s	19 August – 15 September 2021
Broadcast Video On Demand	STV Player, All 4, ITV HUB, Sky Video On Demand, Virgin Video On Demand/Skysmart	30s	19 August – 15 September 2021
Short form Video On Demand	Sky Media	30s	19 August – 15 September 2021
Pause Adverts	STV Player/All 4	Static	19 August – 15 September 2021
Social	Facebook/Instagram/Twitter	15s	19 August- 26 September 2021
Video	Teads/Rommatic	15s	19 August- 26 September 2021
Display	Teads/Rommatic	In-read video, display banners	19 August- 26 September 2021
Mobile	Blis	Mobile banners	19 August- 26 September 2021
PPC	Google	Text adds	19 August- 26 September 2021
Radio	Clyde 1 Clyde 2 Forth 1 Forth 2 MFR 1 Northsound 1 Northound 2 Radio Borders Tay 2 Tay FM Westsound (incl West FM) Smooth Scotland Heart Scotland Classic FM	30s	19 August- 15 September 2021

3. Price for each advert?
Regarding the question of the price of each advert, whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information requested because an exemption under section 33 of FOISA applies. This is because disclosure of the information would (or would be likely to) substantially prejudice the commercial interests of the organisation (section 33(1)(b)).

All Scottish Government media buying and planning is undertaken via agencies appointed through the Media Planning, Buying and Associated Services 2019 to 2023 framework, and never directly with media owners or channels. Using standard media buying software, common to the sector, media buying agencies can access data showing the volume of media purchased by their competitors. Providing the costs alongside this available data would therefore enable competitors to determine the buying rates (price) for individual media companies. This information is highly commercially sensitive within the sector and disclosure would materially disadvantage the Scottish Government contractor. Providing the specific expenditure per advert would allow competitors of the media buying agency to calculate the rates negotiated by the appointed media buying agency who work on behalf of the Scottish Government.

However, we can provide the breakdown per media channel as follows:

• Television Advertising £182,222.03
• Radio Advertising £23,463.37
• Digital Advertising £54,367.32

4. All correspondence between the Scot Gov and the Scottish fire service about the new fire alarm system?
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to Scot Gov and the Scottish fire service. Under Section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could specify the subject matter(s) of the Scot Gov and the Scottish fire service you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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.