How-Do broke news of the tender last week, inducing many a gasp at the headline £30m figure in a climate where budgets are being relentlessly, and mercilessly, pared back across the business board.

O’Brien, however, noted that the figure was more of an indication – a rough guide as to what could be spent – rather than a set honeypot that was there waiting to be dipped into.

“The figure was, we thought, a reasonable estimate on the value of the framework for the next three to four years,” he explained.

“We thought it was important to give suppliers an idea of the scale of this.”

But what is this ‘this’ exactly? What does the NHS mean by social marketing?

Surely 30million quid is a lot to spend setting up a Facebook group for example?

“Social marketing is becoming increasingly important to the NHS and has been growing in influence since the 2004 White Paper ‘Choosing Health’.

Social changes through marketing

“Equally it is being applied to understand and influence how people use services, for example whether to use a NHS Walk-in Centre rather than A&E.

“Crucially, it is at least as much about investing in insight, segmentation and product design - or, more correctly for the NHS, service design - as it is about marcomms, so that our services reflect and meet the needs of patients and the public.”

O’Brien said that social marketing in this context had been used throughout the world – in markets like the US, South East Asia and South America – to deal with issues such as clean drinking water and condom useage with great success. It’s just taken a bit longer to catch on over here.

So this £30m budget isn’t just going to be lavished on a few TV campaigns, some help lines and the odd website, it’s going to be brandished – across a myriad of channels – to bring the NHS closer to the population its caters for in the region and refine its offering.

Through PR, research, creative work and strategic planning it will be utilised to influence people’s fundamental behaviour – particularly with regard to NHS-taxing issues such as smoking and drinking – and make the region healthier.

NHS gets a new treatment

Pinning down exactly what the framework will encompass, and on how many levels it will operate, is therefore a tricky task.

It’s not as easy as saying client A wants to appoint agency B for a £30m campaign.

The agencies that are successful across the six lots will sit on a framework that is there to be utilised by the 50 organisations that are represented by the procurement body.

As such they will not be guaranteed work, but are effectively on hand as pre-vetted, preferred suppliers across the region.

O’Brien told How-Do that the appointments should be made by February, but could not give an indication of just how many firms would make up the framework:

“There are a number of lots available on the framework. We expect to appoint a number of agencies to each lot, but how many depends on the number and quality of the tender submissions - so it’s not possible to say at this stage.”

O’Brien is interested in getting closer to his target groups and developing as much of an understanding of their needs as he is of giving them an understanding of what the NHS can do for them.

It’s about more than just adverts telling them ‘smoking’s bad – ring this number to quit’, he says, it’s about engaging rather than being didactic and effecting widespread social change.

Suddenly, you might think, £30m doesn’t seem like all that much money after all.

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