§ Brian CotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much has been spent advertising Business Link services in the past five years; what the nature of this advertising has been; and what the assessed outcome of each campaign has been. [41461]
§ Nigel GriffithsInformation on advertising spend prior to the set-up of the Small Business Service in April 2000 is not available.
Since April 2000, £4.2 million has been spent advertising the Business Link services at a national level. This includes two years of publicity activities.
In March 2001, there was national newspaper, radio, and directory advertising (this covers insertions for a year in directories such as Yellow Pages) at a cost of £1.3 million. At this stage, no baseline awareness figures were held. 10 per cent. unprompted awareness and 55 per cent. prompted awareness of Business Link were findings from the National Omnibus Survey of Small Businesses, August 2001.In October 2001, there was national newspaper, TV, online, direct mail and directory advertising at a cost of £2.3 million, with follow up national newspaper and online advertising in February 2002 at a cost of £0.6 million.Evaluation and tracking of this advertising was carried out and the effectiveness of the campaign was also measured by the results of the National Omnibus Survey of Small Businesses, November 2001.
The advertising exceeded its response targets and there was a 55 per cent. increase in calls to the contact centre and a 96 per cent. increase in user sessions on the website over the two-month campaign period compared to the two months prior to advertising.Levels of unprompted awareness of Business Link increased from 10 per cent. to 14 per cent., and levels of prompted awareness increased from 55 per cent. to 58 per cent. There were significant increases in awareness among female entrepreneurs, with unprompted increasing from 5 per cent. to 14 per cent. and prompted from 23 per cent. to 63 per cent.Spring 2002 advertising activities are still running and so no assessment of outcome is possible.
§ Brian CotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which advertising agency was consulted with regard to the Business Links advertising campaign in October 2001; what the remuneration of the company was; and what the assessed outcome of the campaign has been. [41458]
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§ Nigel GriffithsThe advertising agency used was Ogilvy and Mather. Ogilvy and Mather were paid £170,538 for the October campaign, which represents 8 per cent. of the £2.1 million total spend on national newspaper, television, and online advertising at this time.
Evaluation and tracking is carried out for the campaign, and the effectiveness of the campaign is also measured by the results of the National Omnibus Survey of Small Businesses, which showed significant increases in both prompted and unprompted awareness of Business Link:
Levels of prompted awareness increased from 55 per cent. to 58 per cent.Levels of unprompted awareness increased from 10 per cent. to 14 per cent.Levels of awareness among female entrepreneurs also increased from 5 per cent. unprompted to 14 per cent, and from 23 per cent. prompted to 63 per cent.The advertising exceeded its target of 53,000 responses to the web and contact centre by achieving 81,937 responses during the advertising period.There was a 55–60 per cent. increase in calls to the contact centre during the campaign period and a 77 per cent. increase in website hits. Web user sessions increased 96 per cent. from an average of 39,000 hits in the two months prior to advertising to an average of 76,500 in the two months campaign period.
§ Brian CotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many staff have been employed by Business Links in each region in each of the past five years. [41459]
§ Nigel GriffithsBusiness Links are independent autonomous organisations and figures on the number of staff they employ are not held centrally.