Social media and media advertising spend on COVID-19 vaccination programme: FOI release

Information requested

The amount of money spent by the Scottish Government on social media and media advertising to encourage people to take the COVID-19 vaccinations, including paying or rewarding 'social media influencers', media personalities and public figures.

Response

The Scottish Government publishes expenditure on advertising for each financial year at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/. This information includes a breakdown of expenditure by campaign on a range of media advertising channels.

The expenditure by the Scottish Government on social media and media advertising relating to the COVID-19 vaccine was as follows:

• 2020-2021: £264,665
• 2021-2022: £0
• 2022-2023: £0
• 2023 to 8 September 2023: £136,666

The Scottish Government made no payments to social media influencers, media personalities or public figures for social media or media advertising to encourage uptake of the vaccine.

Public Health Scotland also ran advertising activity relating to the COVID-19 vaccine or COVID-19/flu vaccine from 2020/2021 to 2022/2023. Details on how to submit a Freedom of Information request to Public Health Scotland can be found on the following webpage: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/contact-us/freedom-of-information-foi-andenvironmental-information-regulation-eir-requests/.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The above figures cover social media and media advertising from campaigns where the lead campaign message related to the COVID-19 vaccine or the COVID-19 and flu vaccines. The Scottish Government has delivered other campaigns which referred to vaccination for COVID-19 but the vaccine was not the primary message. For example, the Not Giving In campaign that was active from 1 April 2021 covered physical distancing, face coverings, hand hygiene, testing, isolation, working from home and the COVID-19 vaccine. The Scottish Government does not hold information that breaks down the overall media expenditure to allocate a share against COVID-19 or COVID-19/flu vaccines.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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.