Brighton and Hove council awards multimillion-pound advertising contract
Council chiefs say they will save hundreds of thousands of pounds on advertising over the coming five years.
Brighton and Hove City Council has agreed a new multimillion-pound contract with a London agency called TMP, which specialises in recruitment advertising.
The council is the leading member of a consortium of five local authorities which have joined together to strengthen their buying power.
The contract covers job ads, public notices and corporate marketing for
- Brighton and Hove City Council
- East Sussex County Council
- East Sussex Fire and Rescue
- Sussex Police
- South Downs National Park
It covers state schools in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex and is open to other public sector bodies.
A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said that a key goal was to recruit the best expertise at lowest cost when jobs became vacant.
The contract has been valued at £1.2 million across the consortium but has the potential to rise to £12 million.
The council spokesman said: “This should cut our recruitment advertising costs by half or the equivalent of £100,000 this year.
“Recruitment is much less now because of the economic downturn and spending cuts but we will benefit from bulk buying.”
He added that TMP would also use a mixture of traditional, digital and social media.
While public sector job ads are increasingly published online, many are still published in newspapers such as The Argus.
The new contract is expected to continue the trend away from traditional media.
Jason Kitcat, the council’s cabinet member for finance and central services, said: “The residents of this city deserve the best expertise to improve services that are recruited at the lowest possible cost so being part of this south east consortium means we have improved buying power and only pay for excellent results.
“The current public spending squeeze and drive for efficiencies means we are recruiting less and combined with the savings generated by this contract we expect our recruitment marketing costs to halve.”
Robert Peasnell, head of government, health and education solutions at TMP Worldwide, said:
“Brighton and Hove Council is keen to do things differently and has a track record of creating some of the boldest, award-winning work in the public sector.
“We’re delighted to be working with them.”
The five-year contract, which was previously held by Southampton-based FivebyFive, started on Thursday 1 September.
