Media advertising expenditure
The Victorian Government purchases media through the whole of Victorian Government Master Agency Media Services (MAMS) state purchase contract.
The MAMS contract covers media planning and buying on behalf of government and is managed by the Department of Treasury and Finance.
Victorian Public Sector organisations that used the MAMS contract during 2018–19 qualified for significantly discounted government media rates. These included:
- all Victorian Government departments
- public bodies (which include, but are not limited to, statutory authorities, public entities, special bodies and other users). Examples include the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Visit Victoria, WorkSafe Victoria and TAFE institutions.
For more information about the MAMS contract visit the MAMS page on the Victorian Government procurement website.
Government advertising categories
The Victorian Government classifies paid media advertising into three categories:
- Campaign advertising, which is designed to inform, educate, motivate or change behaviour. It requires strategic planning of creative and media services to achieve set objectives.
- Functional advertising, which is specifically used to provide the public with information and is generally simple and informative and only appears for a short time. Examples include public notices, notifications of public meetings, requests for tender, enrolment notices, statutory or regulatory notices, and emergency or safety announcements.
- Recruitment advertising, which is used to promote a specific job vacancy or a limited number of roles. Larger scale, industry-wide recruitment by government is usually classed as 'campaign' advertising.
Collectively, functional and recruitment advertising are referred to as ‘non-campaign’ advertising.
During the 2018–19 financial year, MediaCom provided campaign advertising as well as functional and recruitment advertising services to government.
Expenditure on major government campaigns
Each year, government departments and public bodies publish information within their annual reports about their expenditure on major advertising campaigns, as required by the relevant Financial Reporting Direction.[1]
For 2018–19, departments and bodies are required to report on advertising campaigns with a total media spend of $100,000 or greater (exclusive of GST), including:
- the name of the advertising campaign
- the start and end date of the campaign
- a summary of the campaign
- details of campaign expenditure for the reporting period (exclusive of GST).
This reporting is collated and summarised in the Victorian Government Advertising Campaign Activity Summary 2018–19, available on the vic.gov.au website.
Government advertising plan for 2018–19
Each year the Victorian Government publishes an annual advertising plan, which provides an overview of government advertising campaigns planned for that year.
The Victorian Government Advertising Plan for 2018–19 is available on the vic.gov.au website.
[1] For 2018–19, the relevant Financial Reporting Direction was FRD 22H Standard disclosures in the Report of Operations (May 2017).
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