The “Connect to your council” drive, designed to encourage more people to make use of the services on offer online from their councils has been branded “a waste of public money” by local governments, according to a new report.
Research by Public Sector Forums, the independent network of eGovernment professionals, found that only one in ten of the 280 local government officials polled regard the campaign as “money well spent”.
Over two thirds of those polled said Whitehall should fund councils to promote their online services, which is currently not the case.
One in three of those polled had not seen the campaign's main adverts anywhere, while two thirds had not come across any online, radio or advertorial marketing and one in seven wasn't even aware a national take-up campaign was underway until it was brought to their attention via the survey itself.
Others raised concerns about the campaign's 'low key to invisible' marketing style, as well as the quality of the adverts themselves – described by one respondent as "utterly depressing".
Of those who had seen the campaign's press and billboard adverts, half rated them as distinctively average, while just over a quarter (28 per cent) viewed them favourably.
Only a quarter said their local authority would be running its own local campaign on the back on the national publicity.
The research will come as a blow for the new Department for Communities and Local Government, which was responsible for the push.
Autor/Author: Tom Reed
Quelle/Source: mad.co.uk, 12.06.2006
