As part of a commitment to ensure that the public feedback procedure is able to ‘reach as broad a population as possible’, Whitehall comms teams have turned to audio platforms
To encourage widespread societal participation, the government has spent tens of thousands of pounds to use podcasts to promote the ongoing public consultation on plans for a state-issued digital identity.
The feedback exercise is open until 5 May and – according to James Frith, the minister responsible for oversight of the digital ID scheme – while it is “open to the public… its success is hinged on open and transparent participation”.
“We have a duty to reach as broad a population as possible and have worked with media partners in order to ensure that the public are aware of the consultation and how to participate,” he added, in response to recent written parliamentary questions from Liberal Democrat MP Steff Aquarone. “For this campaign, we’ve worked with two podcast partners: Acast and Audioboom, with a combined spend of £62,817 for the duration of the 12-week consultation.”
One of Aquarone’s enquiries related to how much money had spent with Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible, but Frith clarified that “podcasts are not bought at partner level” – rather that advertising space is acquired via the platforms that host content for those that create it.
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While it represents a comparatively small chunk of departments’ overall marketing and comms spending, official guidance from the Government Communications Service advises that “influencer marketing is a paid, credible, and valuable communication channel where we partner with individuals who have engaged online followings – including social media influencers, podcasters and experts”.
The guidelines add: “This approach can help us reach audiences traditional channels struggle to connect with, and should be considered alongside established online and offline channels.”
Figures provided to parliament by trade sector body AudioUK indicate that the total annual value of podcast advertising is set to rise to around £80m this year.
Once the normal consultation exercise has concluded, government then intends to run a People’s Panel of up 120 people who will be randomly selected and will then be convened to provide their views on digital identity. Frith recently asserted that no person or organisation will be able to “buy their way in” to participate in the exercise.
