Scottish Government funding to the Marketing Society or Marketing Society Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

The following information:

1. How much funding/expenditure the Scottish Government has given the Marketing Society or Marketing Society Scotland in each of the last 5 calendar years? Please breakdown spend by membership fee, event sponsorship, staff training and other.
2. Is there a tender process for other professional organisations (eg Chartered Institute of Marketing, Data & Marketing Assoc, CIPR, PRCA, MRS) to participate in to pitch for this funding? If no, is there a reason why the funding/expenditure is allocated to Marketing Society or Marketing Society Scotland directly?
3. What value, benefit or return is the taxpayer gaining from the funding/expenditure?

Response

1. To enable us to provide the information requested, we have interpreted your request as relating to annual costs for the Scottish Government Communications Division. The Scottish Government operates on a financial year basis rather than calendar years. Expenditure allocated to the Marketing Society Scotland over the last five financial years is set out below:

	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26
Membership Fee	£5,000	£4,000	£5,000	£5,806.35	£5,806.35
Event Sponsorship	£7,000	£8,000	£7,000	£7,000	£7,000

​​​​​​​2. There is no tender process for procuring membership of professional organisations. The Marketing Society Scotland has been identified as an industry body to provide continuing professional development to Scottish Government marketing professionals, access to training and opportunities for skills enhancement through exchange of marketing best practice and ongoing insight to developments in the sector.

​​​​​​​3. Marketing Society Scotland membership provides access to specialist training events, conferences and learning sessions annually through a single membership investment which benefits multiple team members across the communications function, making it more cost-effective than individual training or multiple smaller investments. Procuring equivalent specialist marketing training through individual commercial courses would cost significantly more than the annual membership fee.

​​​​​​​Investment in professional development and training directly improves the effectiveness of government communications staff and communications work, including marketing and campaigns. Trained communications professionals produce more effective campaigns that achieve stronger outcomes for the people of Scotland.

​​​​​​​Access to industry best practice, effectiveness case studies, and peer learning from public, private and third sector organisations facilitates knowledge transfer which improves campaign design, delivery and ultimately, return on investment.

​​​​​​​The membership and sponsorship of key flagship events (including Brand Scotland's partnership at the St. Andrew's Day event) supports and strengthens the Scottish Government's relationships and engagement with partners across both the public and private sector. This supports more effective collaborative working, joined-up communications and better value-for-money on marketing spend through shared resources, and coordinated campaigns that increase impact reduce duplication of effort across the public sector.​​​​​​​

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.