Dear Sir or Madam,

It has recently come to light that £4.6 million of taxpayers money
has been spent on a campaign to encourage teens to wear a condom.

As this campaign is largely based around using free social
networking sites, along with mobile videos etc to spread the word
the figure spent seems somewhat excessive.

My request is therefore:

1) Can you please provide a detailed breakdown of where the 4.6m
has been spent?

2) As the PR Agency Blue Rubicon was awarded the contract what was
their fee for the work compared to the costs involved?

3) What was the tender process for deciding which PR firm would be
used and who made the final decision?

4) How many firms were approached for tender?

5) What number of people have responded to the campaign (a figure
which should should include a breakdown of how many hits to the
webpage, downloads of youtube video etc)?

Yours faithfully,

David Gunn

Dear Mr Gunn,

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible (where a response is required). For information, the departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should be sent within 15 working days or 20 working days if you are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0020594

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk

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Dear Mr Gunn,

I am writing to confirm that the Department has now completed its search for the information which you requested on 4 March 2009. The answers to your questions are numbered accordingly.

1. The figure of £4.6m you quote is the total amount being spent in the current financial year (2008/9) on two integrated campaigns that are part of the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy.

These campaigns delivered by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), along with a third which is delivered by the Department for Health (DH) and that targets young adults, contribute to the Public Service Agreement target to reduce teenage pregnancies and instances of sexually transmitted infections amongst young people.

The Want Respect? Use a Condom campaign promotes condom use to older, sexually active teenagers who are most likely to have unprotected sex. The RU Thinking campaign provides all teenagers with access to advice and information to help them make healthy and informed choices about sex and relationships.

£4.6m is the cost of all activity for both the Want Respect? Use a Condom and RU Thinking campaigns. This includes paid for advertising on television, radio, print media and online; digital and mobile partnerships (including the Thmbnls interactive mobile drama); websites; and campaign extension through PR and partnerships (targeting youth, parent and stakeholder audiences).

2. Blue Rubicon were appointed to deliver campaign extension activity across all three campaigns in July 2008. This includes, but is not limited to supporting the Thmbnls interactive mobile drama. The total amount spent on this contract in the financial year 2008/9 is £258,877.

3. A competitive pitch process was conducted in which four agencies from the Central Office of Information's (COI) framework roster were issued with a specification of requirements. Blue Rubicon presented proposals which would execute that brief most successfully. The decision to appoint Blue Rubicon was a joint decision between the DCSF, DH and COI.

4. Four agencies were approached to tender for this work.

5. The department reasonably requires further information in order to identify and locate the specific information that you have asked for. I will not be able to take this matter further without further clarity. In particular, it would be useful to know that in light of the information above which campaign you require further information about and the exact detail of the information you require.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote our reference number 2009/0020594 in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, you should write to me within two calendar months of the date of this e-mail.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our complaints/review procedure.

Your sincerely,

Laurence Russ

Laurence Russ
Marketing Team Leader
Department for Children, Schools and Families

Direct Line: 020 7925 5073
E-mail: [email address]
[mobile number]

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Dear Mr Russ,

Thank you for the information you have provided thus far with
reference to my FOI request (No. 2009/0020594).

In response to your seeking further clarification for point number
5 in my original email- I'm referring to the number of people who
have viewed the Thmbnls mobile videos. As the videos can only be
viewed via a subscription the total numbers of people who have
requested to view this campaign should be easy enough to discover
(i.e. how many subscribers does the service have?). Further to this
can you provide the total number of hits to the website
(http://www.thmbnls.co.uk/)?

Additionally I would like to enquire as to the cost of the series
to create (in other words how much did 20:20 London charge to
create the series)?

Yours sincerely,

David Gunn

Dear Mr Gunn

Thank you for providing the clarification requested against your Freedom Of Information request reference 2009/0020594. We are now able to provide the information required:

Please note the following figures and statistics are based on information as of the 11 May 2009.

1) The total number of people who have signed up to receive the thmbnls series via their mobile is 5,054 with the numbers increasing daily.

2) There have been 262,755 visits to www.thmbnls.co.uk of which 196,438 are unique visitors. On the thmbnls website, the trailer has been viewed 211,137 times and, in addition, 82,619 times on YouTube.

3) The thmbnls drama has cost £250k to produce.

Laurence Russ
Marketing Team Leader
Department for Children, Schools and Families

NEW DIRECT LINE NUMBER: 020 7227 5191
E-mail: [email address]
[mobile number]

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