Directgov has the potential to enable Government to make substantial savings in shifting from traditional to digital channels. For those savings to be realised, it is vital that the public are aware of and trust Directgov as the Government’s official website. The aim of the campaign is to increase awareness so that Directgov is the first site people think of for Government information, and one which they both trust and recommend to others. Early results have shown the campaign has been a success with a record number of 614,000 visits on the first day of the campaign which was then followed by another 663,000 the next Monday. During the period of the campaign to date, year-on-year visits to the Directgov homepage have risen by 104 per cent.
The cost of production and airtime purchased to date combined is £2.05 million.
The artists featured in the Directgov advertisement are Nick Moran, Honor Blackman, Janet Street Porter, Christopher Biggins, Kelly Brook and Graham McPherson (popularly known as ‘Suggs’). Helen Mirren provided the voiceover.
Negotiations on the involvement of these artists in the project were conducted by the COI and all of the above agreed to participate in the advert for a fraction of their normal commercial rate.