#TalkPeriods campaign - Costs and other questions: FOI release

Information requested

FOI/202000012897
You asked for: Information regarding the total costs allocated of the #talkperiods/period poverty campaign launched by the Scottish Government. In addition please also breakdown the costs – for example: cost of cinema advertisement; cost of sponsored posts on social media; launch of any ‘app’ (as mentioned during Local Government and Communities committee by Aileen Campbell MSP on 08.01.20; cost of launch event which took place on Monday 20 January 10.30am at Custom Lane, 1 Customs Wharf, Edinburgh EH6 6AL; projected costs of this campaign over the next 3 years.

FOI/202000014685
You asked for: Please could you disclose the total amount of public funds spent on the campaign by your Marketing and Insight Unit for the following campaign. "#TalkPeriods" - This campaign has heavily relied on the social media streams such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Could you please itemise the spend of the campaign into specific sections for each marketing technique used. In particular the amount of money spent sponsoring the posts for the campaign "Talk Periods". I would also like to know who there key target audience is for this campaign.

Response

The final costs related to the Period Stigma campaign won’t be known until the campaign is complete and financial reconciliation has taken place. However the budget currently allocated to the campaign is £202,108.48. This can be broken down as per the below (with the respective agencies detailed in brackets):

Research, creative development and testing (Union):	£37,855:
Primary insight gathering	£10,000
Creative development	£12,875
Creative testing	£14,980
Creative refinement and production (Union)	£46,687.94
Young Scot partnership (Union)	£825
PR (Stripe Communications)	£30,000
Media planning/buying:	£79,720.54:
Cinema	£19,488.98
Video-on-demand	£5,786.02
Outdoor	£17,081.10
Digital	£34,502
Big Issue	£1,808.48
Contingency	£1,053.96
Evaluation (progressive)	£7,020
Total (excluding VAT)	£202,104.48

Please note that the allocation under Media Planning and Buying includes social media advertising of £22,780.38. Digital optimisation of the paid-for media advertising occurs constantly throughout the campaign’s duration. This falls under Republic of Media’s remit and within their fees. The PR allocation above includes launch event costs of £1,370 and an allocation of £6,850 for social media visuals and content. Contingency spend will be allocated during the campaign to up-weight channels which are performing most effectively, in order to maximise overall campaign performance.

The production allocation under ‘Creative refinement and production’ includes the creation of all marketing assets by the Union, including the cost of the Union producing the marketing assets for cinema advertising, social media visuals and content. These cannot be split out further by channel due to the overlapping nature of the marketing assets e.g. the 30 second video that was produced by the Union was used for cinema advertising and digital advertising.

FOI/202000012897 specific response:
The campaign will take place within financial year 2019/20 only. There are no plans to extend the campaign beyond this timeframe. The period products mobile phone app is a separate workstream and not part of the campaign. We have no plans to launch the app at present.

FOI/202000014685 specific response:
The campaign is directed at 16-24 year olds in Scotland.

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