The Get ready for Brexit campaign was launched across billboards, television adverts and social media on September 1st 2019 and cost a total of £46m before being pulled just one month later on October 28th 2019. The government halted the drive when the deadline was extended in October 2019.

Part of a larger £100m advertising push, 10% of the campaign was dedicated to out-of-home and JCDecaux was named as beneficiaries.

The idea was to raise awareness with the public of where to access information on how to prepare for the UK’s departure from the European Union.

In a report released by the NAO, it says that while the Brexit campaign did make the public “better aware” of some things, it is not clear that it led to people being “significantly better prepared”.

The Cabinet Office, which was responsible for the campaign, estimates that the campaign reached 99.8% of the population. A survey commissioned by the office found that 58% of people remembered seeing the campaign.

Despite this, the number of people who then went and searched for information ranged between 32% and 37% during the campaign and stayed at 34% when it was stopped.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO comments: “At short notice, the Cabinet Office successfully corralled multiple government departments to work together effectively and launched this complex campaign at great speed. However, it is not clear that the campaign resulted in the public being significantly better prepared.

“If the Cabinet Office faces a similar challenge in the future, it should, from the start, focus much more on what impact is needed and how best to deliver the behaviour change required by government, targeting spending on the activities that are likely to add to the greatest value.”

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