Money Advice Service to spend over £20m on brand awareness and marketing
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The Money Advice Service plans to spend over £20m of its industry funded budget on marketing and brand awareness in 2012/13, Money Marketing understands.
Last week, MAS told delegates at a Marketforce conference in London that it was moving from information towards “advice-type activity” but insists it will not enter the regulated advice area.
Speaking at the conference, policy lead Francis McGee said advice can help consumers act to address financial needs. He said: “Advice is more directional, more assertive, more personal, than simply information and education-type activity which is why we are moving from doing information and education towards advice-type activity.”
Following the conference, Money Marketing asked the MAS to define “advice-type activity”.
McGee says: “We are a service focused on getting people to take action. With this goal in mind, we continue to offer people advice but we do not provide regulated advice or sell anything and we never recommend specific financial service products. We will be more action-oriented, more directional than simply providing information. The MAS is looking to enhance its service, making sure it delivers more.”
The MAS says by “advice” it means encouraging consumers to act on issues such as debt.
Hearnden Associates director Paul Hearnden says: “It concerns me that the MAS is stepping out of its remit.”
Money Marketing understands that MAS chief executive Tony Hobman told staff at a briefing in November that half of the 2012/13 budget will be spent on marketing of the service. The MAS has a 2011/12 budget of £43.7m, of which £4.6m was allocated for communications and marketing.
In June, it launched a £4m ad campaign which claimed the service offers free, independent, unbiased advice, which was a “breath of fresh air”. The MAS declined to comment.
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Readers' comments (23)
Chris Miller | 9 Dec 2011 9:31 am
£20 million. Unbee leee vable!
I expect 19 of the 20 will be on self justified bonuses.
It's like something out a Zimbabwean kleptocracy
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Joe Egerton - Justice in Financial Services | 9 Dec 2011 9:32 am
It would be interesting to know how many private companies spend on this scale on this sort of advertising project.
Such firms are constrained by non-exec directors, analysts reporting on perfomance, FDs anxious about the next year's accounts...
Is this another case of a regulator being extraordinarily liberal with somebodyelse's money?
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Anonymous | 9 Dec 2011 9:35 am
The agency must have seen them coming!! What a disgrace.I can give them some very good advice for FREE!
How about helping people to reduce their debts with some of the cash you are about to throw away.
When it was given to you was it ever imagined it would be spent so foolishly and irresponsibly?
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Stephen Bolton | 9 Dec 2011 9:39 am
This is apart from the huge sum that we were previously told it had spent on its website
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Anonymous | 9 Dec 2011 9:43 am
And if I say I don't want them to spend my money like that? I mean, it's not some trifling amount is it? It could have been used to subsidize the exam fees for some 100,000 adviser exams!
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Chris F | 9 Dec 2011 9:44 am
It's a case of the unaccountable spending the money of the unrepresented in pursuit of the unwilling uneducated.
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hugh jeego | 9 Dec 2011 9:53 am
Brian Rix must be in this somewhere. Why doesn`t the Sun or the Mirror headline this story? Must admit I am getting blaise over the revelations continuing to issue from this FSA i.e. us, sponsored farce.
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Bill | 9 Dec 2011 9:58 am
I guess it is easy to 'splash the cash' when it is not your own and your are completely unaccountable for any results. Why not plough it back into the already well known service which provided excellent debt advice called the Citizens' Advice Bureau? To simple I guess and doesn't keep enough on the regulatory funded gravy train.Why use a system that works and utilises low paid workers and volunteers when you can give yourself some big bonuses for repeated failure?
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Anonymous | 9 Dec 2011 10:07 am
Lol,
Well if it wasn't your money and it was wasted like this what else can you do but laugh?
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Julian Stevens | 9 Dec 2011 10:12 am
And the Cost:Benefit Analysis indicates..................?
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