Public Notice Case Study
McConnells have worked with numerous public sector clients supplying public notices, campaign advertising and other media planning and buying services with great success. The agency has implemented many innovative processes to benefit the client in multiple ways. Our extensive experience and what we have learned from our existing client base has enabled us to refine and tailor our service as we continuously strive to streamline our processes.
A South-West council wanted to reduce their annual spend on public notice advertising while ensuring their legal obligations were met. They approached McConnells to see how we could help them to cut back. We were able to save this client over £360,000 against rate card costs and broke the £100,000 barrier in terms of savings against client’s direct costs throughout the entirety of the contract and have since successfully retained this contract at re-tender. These savings are down to several money-saving techniques such as:
- Offer of retrospective rebates
- Tiered discount systems
- Substantial discounts secured due to existing relationships and costs with national media owners
- Negotiating pro rata discounts if audited circulations fall
Placing statutory notices is not only costly for the client but also labour intensive when dealing directly with many different media suppliers. We have helped this client to work more efficiently and to streamline their internal processes in several ways.
A detailed media guide and training was provided to the client’s staff to ensure the most relevant and appropriate media is always selected. We recognise the importance of the client’s investment in their own staff’s development, as it ultimately makes for a smoother working relationship and better results.
Our experience with public notices has enabled us to refine our traditional methods of typesetting and production by producing composite public notices meaning the need for only one client logo, removing of any repetitious text, reducing font size whilst maintaining legibility and being mindful of the printing process.
All public notices are proof-read in detail to ensure 100% accuracy and to minimise any potential errors in the content of the notices. We understand the legal implications that errors to public notices may have for the client. We have access to legal advisors at our professional body to ensure all necessary legal compliance.
Should any amendments, cancellations, or late bookings arise, we have demonstrated our flexibility and can ensure that media owners will go the extra mile to assist so as we can guarantee a consistently high quality of service to the client irrespective of deadlines. We also plan ahead and provide deadlines for Bank Holiday periods well in advance so as the client’s public notice requirements are always met.
We gather post-publication proofs promptly and send a consolidated digital file to the client on a weekly basis. This makes them easily accessible and enables us to check for any potential mishaps as early as possible so as any issues, albeit rare, can be rectified with the client quickly. As a result of this thorough process, we have successfully reduced client’s error rate significantly to a rate of less than 1%.
The client receives one consolidated monthly invoice from McConnells, which makes their life much easier. In addition, we compile comprehensive financial analysis which we offer to the client as part of our scheduled monthly review meetings saving them management time.
We are also in the process of introducing an innovative browser-based CMS system that would enable the client to handle the end-to-end requirement online should they wish to.