Government’s £3m ethnic agency account re-think
One of the biggest annual marketing and advertising budgets for ethnic-minority focused agencies is up for renewal again.
The government’s Central Office of Information (COI) spends around £3 million every year with agencies that specialise in communicating with non-white communities in the UK. The money is almost always spent with one of the preferred agencies on its roster.
Last year these were: Focus Consultancy, Media Moguls, Media Reach Advertising, TMP Worldwide, Uproar and Equality Foundation and The Watch-Men Agency. Now the COI is looking to renew this roster, potentially giving other companies the chance to bid for projects in the future.
But the COI’s decision has already run into controversy, with one agency branding it as a “disgrace” and saying the amount of money spent was inadequate.
It just goes to show how seriously the government and COI take the ethnic communities. I hope that when the COI annouce their new roster that they tell their clients (government bodies) to get real and realise how much they really have to spend to reach the communities in order to get their messages out there.”
The roster was first established in 2004, following COI’s Common Good Research into communicating with ethnic minorities. The COI says by March 2008 it will hope to have a broad range of agencies, from well-established firms to niche freelancers on its list.
Agencies usually have to demonstrate the ability to cover several marketing communications disciplines and reach a variety of audiences including ethnic minorities, refugees, asylum seekers, faith groups and travellers.
Patricia Macauley, COI’s head of black and minority ethnic communications, said: “The UK’s population has evolved since 2004. We will develop the [roster] to reflect the diverse range of audiences the government needs to reach. For example, there has been a growing need to engage smaller communities now living in the UK, such as Angolan and Congolese.”
The COI coordinates with and deals with agencies on behalf of various government departments.
This year it has run campaigns on behalf of the Department of Health, Defra, Communities and Local Government, focusing on blood donations, stop and search, voter registration and illegal food imports among others.
Anjna Raheja of Media Moguls told AIM magazine: “Yes we hope to be part of it again, we’ve been on the roster since it was introduced and in fact worked on several campaigns with the COI and government departments before the introduction of the roster.”
He added: “It just goes to show how seriously the government and COI take the ethnic communities. I hope that when the COI annouce their new roster that they tell their clients (government bodies) to get real and realise how much they really have to spend to reach the communities in order to get their messages out there.”
The COI spent £337.6m to the financial year ending March 31st in total, including £30m on direct and relationship marketing, £11m on events, and £23m on PR and sponsorship.
The review is expected to be completed by March next year.
For more information see
www.asiansinmedia.org |
