Fishburn Hedges

25.06.2010

There was no surer sign of the times than the announcement today that the Government is planning to axe three quarters of its 820 websites.

It’s not surprising news, especially to those of us who have worked with Government departments over recent years and witnessed their unswerving commitment to rationalising the Government’s online presence. Such a cull represents an easy win in the battle to prove to the public that the Government is serious about cutting unnecessary spending.

But it has far-reaching consequences for Government communications, and in particular behaviour change campaigns.

Even writing that sentence felt dated. We’ve known for some time that the classic Government behaviour change campaign is dead. But this development feels rather like the nail in the coffin: it has an air of permanence about it.

No longer will we see top-down campaigns heavily weighted towards multi-million pound advertising spend, with the main comms objective to drive people to the campaign website and keep them there for as long as possible.

Rather, campaign websites, for those campaigns that survive the age of austerity, will become campaign pages on the major hubs like DirectGov or NHS Choices. There will be increased spend on search to drive them there, but there may not always be a premium placed on keeping them there. More and more, partnerships will be brokered with private and third sector partners, and the consumer’s online journey will more often than not drive them quickly to a partner site or social media app.

A great example is this Health Checker created by NHS Choices in partnership with mySupermarket.co.uk. If this tool is successful, the user spends less than 30 seconds on the NHS site, but becomes a regular user of the partner site. All parties benefit, and the user is engaged in the issue, presumably without a penny of Government money being spent. In this case, it’s a little surprising they haven’t gone the extra mile and created a Facebook app as well.

So there will still be investment in tools designed to engage the consumer, but such investment is unlikely to come from Government coffers. Those in the private sector yet to capitalise on the public sector’s fast-growing dependence on partnerships ought to move quickly.