Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 July 2019
229. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Education and Skills the amount spent on digital marketing in each of the past eight years; the items on which funds were spent; the criteria by which target audiences were selected; the amount of the digital spend targeted here; the amount targeted abroad; the amount that related to private companies; the amount that related to policy initiatives; and the purpose of the digital advertisements. [29390/19]
View answerFor the Deputy’s information, the details in relation to the expenditure from 2011-2018 inclusive in relation to digital marketing are set out below.
In the years 2011-2017 my Department had no digital marketing spend. However, in December 2018, a campaign promoting teaching as a career was developed in conjunction with the Government Information Service (€132,991) in which digital media was utilised as a platform.
In addition, during 2018, my Department worked with other bodies on a number of other high profile campaigns aimed at raising awareness among the teaching profession and learners on specific initiatives including a national STEM awareness campaign (€78,965); online safety campaign in conjunction with the Department of the Taoiseach (€21,051); awareness raising Campaign (Promotion of Foreign Languages as part of Ireland's Foreign Languages strategy) which was implemented by Post-Primary Languages Initiative (PPLI) (€350,000). Each of these campaigns had some digital marketing element. The breakdown of the specific digital marketing element is not available as the marketing and advertising campaigns were managed by the relevant organisations.
All of the spend above related to raising awareness or driving action for the relevant policy initiatives. No amount was targeted abroad. The campaigns all involved payments to private companies.
