FOI/202500497828 · FOI · cost limit
Information regarding the Scottish Government’s marketing and communications activity for the SARCS (Sexual Assault Response Coordination Service) campaign: FOI release
Information requested
Information regarding the Scottish Government’s marketing and communications activity for the SARCS (Sexual Assault Response Coordination Service) campaign:
1. Total campaign spend
Total budget allocated to the SARCS marketing campaign for each financial year since its launch Total actual spend for each financial year Any overspend or underspend recorded against the allocated budget
2. Breakdown of expenditure
For each year, please provide a breakdown of spend by category, including but not limited to: Digital advertising (social media, search, programmatic, display) Outdoor advertising (billboards, transport, posters) Broadcast media (TV, radio, streaming) Print media Creative development and production costs Agency fees Research, testing, or evaluation costs
3. Procurement and decision‑making
Names of external agencies or contractors involved in the SARCS campaign Procurement route used (e.g., framework, direct award, competitive tender) Copies of contracts or statements of work relating to the campaign (with redactions as required)
4. Internal documentation
Internal briefings or strategy documents relating to the SARCS campaign Evaluation reports or performance summaries Any internal correspondence discussing the campaign’s objectives, messaging, or budget
5. Campaign performance
Key performance indicators (KPIs) used to measure campaign success Results against those KPIs Any post‑campaign analysis
Response
1. Total Campaign Spend
Budget Allocated and Actual Spend
Financial Year Budget Allocated Actual Spend Variance 2021-2022 £165,000 £157,567.31 Underspend £7,432.69 2022-2023 £260,000 £260,384.87 Overspend £384.87 2023-2024 £100,000 £68,809.08 Underspend £31,190.92 2024-2025 £100,000 £98,635.00 Underspend £1,365.00 2025-2026 £125,000 £111,416.13 Ongoing
2. Breakdown of Expenditure
The following table provides a breakdown of spend by category for each financial year:
Category 2021-22 2022-2023 2023-2024 2024-2025 2025-2026 Digital advertising £120,194.73 £18,108.98 £39,665.00 £35,049.23 Outdoor advertising £99,310.85 £16,527.89 £19,751.00 £17,854.10 Broadcast media £15,312.21 Print media £6,445.85 PR (including PR agency fees) £15,000.00 £5,400.00 £5,930.00 £20,984.00 £15,724.00 Creative development and production of campaign materials (including creative agency fees) £131,080.31 £23,021.29 £12,930.00 £18,235.00 £33,354.13 Research, testing or evaluation costs £11,487.00 £12,458.00 £1,134.00
3. Procurement and Decision Making
External Agencies and Contractors
The following external agencies and contractors were involved in the SARCS campaign:
The Leith Agency – creative services Smarts (NI) Limited – PR services Progressive Partnership Ltd – marketing research services Republic of Media – media planning and buying services APS Group (Scotland) Ltd – print and distribution services
The activity is commissioned through contracts called off from the frameworks as outlined below.
Procurement Routes
Contract Agency Procurement Route Safer - Creative The Leith Agency Call off from the Marketing Services Framework Safer - PR Smarts (NI) Limited Call off from the Marketing Services Framework Safer – Marketing Research Services Progressive Partnership Ltd Call off from the Marketing Services Framework Safer, Net Zero, Smarter, Wealthier and Fairer – Media Republic of Media Call off from the Media Planning and Buying Framework Print and Distribution APS Group (Scotland) Ltd Commissioned on Publishing, Print and Associated Services Framework
Copies of contracts or statements of work relating to the campaign
The above contracts are let on a duration basis against general requirements dependent on the particular portfolio and do not provide detail on activity subsequently commissioned for individual campaigns. In order to answer this question, please find attached the relevant marketing briefs, which function as statements of work for each campaign phase.
Please note that the attached briefs have been redacted to include only the sections directly relevant to your request.
Attached documents: 25-26 - SARCS - Marketing Brief 24-25 - SARCS - Marketing Brief 23-24 - SARCS - Marketing Brief 21-22 - SARCS - Marketing Brief
4. Internal Documentation
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance, the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that in order to locate and retrieve that information, we would need to conduct a search of all records held by the Scottish Government.
Having conducted various searches to fully explore the scope of your request, we have ascertained that the number of documents returned is such that the costs of reviewing this information to establish relevance would exceed the cost limit. Under section 12 of FOISA, public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.
You may wish to consider reducing the scope of your request to reduce the time it would take to respond to your request. For example, you could specify particular documents or restrict your request to a specific time period or business area, which would allow us to limit the scope of the relevant searches.
5. Campaign Performance
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Results Against KPIs
Please note, some documents included in this response contain preliminary SMART objectives developed during campaign planning. The objectives below represent the final versions, which were confirmed once the scope and delivery of the campaign had been determined.
2022-2023
SMART Objective (by end of April 2022) Target Result Prompted Campaign Recall 40% 43% Proportion of recognisers agreeing that they have a better understanding of where to find options for help and support after rape or sexual assault 50% 94% Aware of the Sexual Assault Response Coordination Service (SARCS) 18% (10pp increase) 14% (recognisers 27%) Proportion of recognisers agreeing the advertising makes them think contacting SARCS is something they can do if they needed to 50% 94%
2023-2024
SMART Target to be achieved by Nov 2023 Target Result Maintain awareness of SARCS among the target audience at a level of 12%-14% 12-14% (August 2023) 23% (+9%) Achieve 7M impressions / opportunities to see 7M 7.2m combined figure Deliver 17,500 clicks to site from paid media only 17,500 clicks 14,793 clicks
2024-2025
SMART Target to be achieved by Dec 2024 Target Result Increase awareness of SARCS among target audience (18-44 year olds) from 23% to 28% (+5% points) 28% (+5%) 26% for 18-44 year olds achieved (+3%); 32% achieved 18-32 year olds Achieve 7.5m impressions / opportunities to see (increase from 7.2m in 2023) 7.5m 9.62m Engagement objective – Achieve 45% view through rate (VTR) on YouTube (41% achieved in 2023) 45% VTR 87% VTR Deliver 16,000 clicks to NHS Inform site from paid for media only (14,700 achieved in 2023) 16,000 16,000
Post-Campaign Analysis
Attached document:
21-22 - SARCS - Progressive Report
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Detected exemption language
Under section 12 of FOISA, public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.