Expenditure of Scottish Government advertising: FOI release

Information requested

1. The total amount of money spent on advertising by the Scottish Government during the periods 01 April 2019 until 31 Mar 2020 and 01 April 2020 until 01 Jan 2021.

2. The total amount of money spent on advertising by the Scottish Government with social media outlets such as but not limited to Facebook for the same time periods as at para 1.

3. The total amount of money spent on advertising by the Scottish Government with Scottish Television (STV) during the same time periods as at para 1.

4. The total amount of money spent on advertising by the Scottish Government with Independent Television (ITV) including Ulster Television (UTV) and during the same time periods as at para 1.

5. The total amount of money spent with or provided by the Scottish Government to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) including BBC Scotland during the same time periods as at para 1.

6. The total amount of money spent on advertising by the Scottish Government with any EU registered media company during the same time periods as at para 1.

Response

1. 01 April 2019 – 31 March 2020 - Marketing spend 2019-2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

01 April 2020 – 01 January 2020: £12,190,464

2. 01 April 2019 – 31 March 2020: £735,389

01 April 2020 – 01 January 2021: £2,001,683

3.  This information is exempt under the “Commercial interests and the economy” exemption as disclosure would (or would be likely to) prejudice substantially the commercial interests of Republic of Media, our contracted media organisation, and the specified media owner, as it would enable other organisations and competitors to work out their prices and costs.

4. This information is exempt under the “Commercial interests and the economy” exemption as disclosure would (or would be likely to) prejudice substantially the commercial interests of Republic of Media, our contracted media organisation, and the specified media owner, as it would enable other organisations and competitors to work out their prices and costs.

5. 01 April 2019 – 31 March 2020: £0

01 April 2020 – 01 January 2021: £0

6. 01 April 2019 – 31 March 2020: £1,421,718

01 April 2020 – 01 January 2021: £1,724,801

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