This is despite the fact that the Government has its own in-house marketing agency offering departments a wide range of marketing, design and video resources – called The Studio.
The spending
Pictured: Expenditures by Government departments on freelance and agency creative support.
The latest spending figures were revealed in response to a recent request made under the Freedom of Information Law.
The most significant spend in 2023 was by the Cabinet Office, which spent a total of £16,980.
In the first half of 2024, the Economy Department racked up the biggest bill – spending a total of £12,200 from January to June.
Comms under scrutiny
It comes at a time when Government spending on communications and marketing is under close scrutiny.
The Communications Unit was previously a small team of four people who served the Chief Minister, supported by other individuals in government who took on some communications duties as part of their role.
Restructuring of the unit began towards the end of 2017 – a year in which £921,000 was spent on external communications support. During 2018, the ‘directorate’ grew to 34 peopleand it was decided that, to make a saving of £200,000 a year, graphic design would be brought in-house.
By last year, there were still more than 30 people employed in Communications-related roles in Government, with average salaries totalling more than £60,000, taking the bill for the unit to £2.5m.
At the beginning of this year, Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham said the communications department as a potential area where “re-sizing” of staff numbers could occur.
“Capacity constraints”
It’s understood that most of the recent spend was on video production.
The Government did not provide an answer when Express asked which projects required outsourcing, and for particular details of the Cabinet Office and Economy Department’s spending.
It also did not respond when asked whether there were any particular criteria campaigns had to meet for spending on external creative agency help or whether this was simply down to departmental discretion.
A Government comment appended to the response to the original request made under the Freedom of Information law stated: “The Studio is the central Government of Jersey in-house marketing agency offering government departments a wide range of marketing, design and video resources.
“Most services are offered to departments at zero charge.
“Due to capacity constraints, specialised skills and equipment required and limited availability of certain in-house expertise, not all requests can be handled by The Studio at zero cost. Some design, videography, and photography services will need to be outsourced to freelancers or agencies at a cost.
“Departments will cover the costs of creative work. The directorate does not have its own marketing or advertising budget; all expenditures are funded by the relevant departments, projects, and programmes.”