This morning the budget committee questioned mayoral advisors Dan Ritterband and Guto Hari, on the marketing and communications plans. They were well on top of their brief, telling us that:
Within days of the election they had saved £47K by cutting an unnecessary TfL advertising campaign and ending a contract with a PR agency saved City Hall a further £100K per month.
Money had been saved on event promotion. Marketing the RISE music festival cost £45K less but 10,000 more people attended. Marketing the Freewheel cycling event cost £250K less but 15,000 more people took part. All achieved by better targeting of the message.
The http://www.london.gov.uk/ website will be improved, providing more non political content including tourist offers which are currently only available on the Visit London site. The aim was to make London.gov the homepage of choice for Londoners.
There would be regular scrutiny of the mayor with one question time and three press conferences per month, two of the press conferences to be conducted in venues elsewhere in London, bringing the mayor closer to Londoners.
Instead of two Peoples' Question Times per year there would be six, possibly including opportunities to question mayoral appointees and the commissioners of fire, transport and the police.
More sponsorship would be sought, although following the renaming of the O2 and the Emirates Stadium, there were no plans to rebrand City Hall as the Chavez Testicle!
Witnesses from TfL also revealed that 75% of the marketing budget for low fares for income support claimants had been saved by restricting the formerly national campaign to London only.
Within days of the election they had saved £47K by cutting an unnecessary TfL advertising campaign and ending a contract with a PR agency saved City Hall a further £100K per month.
Money had been saved on event promotion. Marketing the RISE music festival cost £45K less but 10,000 more people attended. Marketing the Freewheel cycling event cost £250K less but 15,000 more people took part. All achieved by better targeting of the message.
The http://www.london.gov.uk/ website will be improved, providing more non political content including tourist offers which are currently only available on the Visit London site. The aim was to make London.gov the homepage of choice for Londoners.
There would be regular scrutiny of the mayor with one question time and three press conferences per month, two of the press conferences to be conducted in venues elsewhere in London, bringing the mayor closer to Londoners.
Instead of two Peoples' Question Times per year there would be six, possibly including opportunities to question mayoral appointees and the commissioners of fire, transport and the police.
More sponsorship would be sought, although following the renaming of the O2 and the Emirates Stadium, there were no plans to rebrand City Hall as the Chavez Testicle!
Witnesses from TfL also revealed that 75% of the marketing budget for low fares for income support claimants had been saved by restricting the formerly national campaign to London only.
2 comments:
The "Chavez Testicle"? Well it's certainly capable of producing a load of b******s.
"Instead of two Peoples' Question Times per year there would be six"
Boris promised more meetings in his manifesto and I will welcome any genuine attempt to increase the access to the Mayor.
That said I think attempts uch as these
http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/the-needless-spin-of-boris-johnson%E2%80%99s-city-hall/20085107
to pass off a routine PQT as evidence that he's delivered on an election promise is, in the words of President Bartlet, amateur hour.
They also make the Mayor look a bit silly. Roger, please have a word!
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