9 November 2017

Government Looks To Strengthen Partnership With Local Media

The Government will look to build upon its partnership with the local media sector because it offers a highly trusted and safe environment for advertisers and powwerful connection with local communities, a senior figure in Government communications has said.  

Delivering the keynote speech at the JICREG-sponsored Local Media Works Awards, which were attended by nearly 100 guests, head of PM priority campaigns, research and insight at Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office communications Claire Pimm cited the importance of local media to Government as an advertising medium.  

She said: “For us in Government, being able to reflect and act upon the concerns and aspirations of local audiences matters because in a climate where brand safety and ad fraud are serious concerns, context is more important than ever before. 

“We know that audiences evaluate us not just on the content of our messages but on how and where they appear.” Claire added: “That’s why local media remains an important channel for us in Government and why we will continue to look at ways to build upon our existing partnership with the sector.”

Her comments were welcomed by Newsquest chief executive Henry Faure Walker who said local media was the market leader in delivering brand safety for advertisers and advertisers were starting to “wake up to this fact.” He said working more closely with local media was “a long overdue move which would benefit both sides and, most importantly, our audiences.”

At the LMWAs last week, Rocket scooped the overall Best of the Best award taking the prize of £1,000 of Apple vouchers. The awards celebrate the role of highly trusted local media as a powerful and transparent medium for national advertisers in a climate where brand safety and context are at a premium. 

Awards judges, who were chaired by former Starcom Mediavest Group UK chief executive Stewart Easterbrook, praised the “quality of thinking” behind Rocket’s winning campaign ‘From Play to Passion’ which was devised in response to a brief set by Airbus.

Designed to boost applications for the Airbus apprenticeships scheme, the campaign proposed a series of ‘Play With Science’ events for schoolchildren in key local areas which could be used to generate shareable material for local media digital platforms, boosting the core print ad campaign in local media.

Presenting the Best Use of Local Targeting award, JICREG chief executive Keith Donaldson unveiled a major upgrade to the audience measurement system which provides the gold standard currency for planning local media.

Keith said: “Launching in March next year, the new system will use new data collected via comScore to enable us to provide unique reach for print, mobile and PC for the first time. This, as well as the ability to target across any combination 9,000+ postcode sectors by audience, makes JICREG powerful tool for planning and targeting for local and national brands.”

The full list of winners is as follows:

  • Best Use of Multi-Platform: MGOMD for ‘Flying into The Future’;
  • Best Strategy: PHD Media for ‘#EngineerYourFuture with Airbus’ jointly with Mediacom Edinburgh for all entries;
  • Best Original Thinking: Rocket Networks for ‘From Play to Passion’;
  • Best Use of Content: Mediacom Edinburgh for ‘Bridging the Relevance Gap’;
  • Best Use of Local Targeting: Mediacom London for ‘The Great British Space Race’;
  • Best Use of Featurelink: MGOMD for their work with Specsavers jointly with Carat UK for their work with DWP and Teeside Gazette;
  • Best of the Best: Rocket Networks for ‘From Play to Passion.’

Chaired by Stewart Easterbrook, the judges were:

  • Brandon Bell, Specsavers head of regional and local marketing;
  • Andy Bolden, GlaxoSmithKline Europe media director/global head of trading;
  • Owen Brace, DWP deputy director of communications;
  • Liam Reynolds, managing director, national sales, Johnston Press;
  • Kathryn Edwards, Airbus ‎employment marketing advisor;
  • Justin Fenton, Local Media Works head of marketing;
  • Patrick Milne, DFS campaign marketing manager;
  • Craig Nayman, Archant chief commercial officer, and Local Media Works chairman.

 

 

 

Notes: 

For more information about the Local Media Works Awards please contact Paul Sinker at paul@newsmediauk.org or Jessica Jones on Jessica@newsmediauk.org.  

Speech by Head of PM Priority Campaigns, Research and Insight at Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office Communications Claire Pimm presenting the Best Strategy Award.

Speech by Newsquest Chief Executive Henry Faure Walker presenting the Best of the Best Award.

Awards judge Andy Bolden, Europe media director/global head of trading, CH Global Categories, GSK Consumer Healthcare, writes for Campaign on the importance of local media for national advertisers.