From Vivid and vaping to e-scooters: NSW Government advertising campaign costs top $72m in 12 months

The state government forked out more than $72m on advertising in the last financial year, despite its pledge to rein in its spending on unnecessary spruiking.

The state government forked out more than $70m of taxpayer dollars on advertising in the last financial year, despite its pledge to rein in its spending on unnecessary spruiking.

New figures have shown the NSW Government spent $72.2m on advertising campaigns in the last 12-month reporting period to promote messages such as school attendance, e-scooter trails and festivals like Vivid Sydney.

The spend covered 308 separate campaigns, including $1.8m on an anti-vaping campaign and $1.7m to promote last’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Other campaign costs included $513,398 spent on an Environment Protection Authority promotion to raise awareness of problem household waste, $462,081 on bike safety, $125,331 on an e-scooter trial campaign, $454,965 to raise awareness of coercive control and $152,926 to promote Australia Day.

There was $405,635 spent directed towards publicity on new seatbelt detection cameras, and $480,263 on advertising relating to the bungled opening of the Rozelle Interchange motorway that caused long commute times for motorists.

$1.7mwas spent promoting the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

A campaign relating to electric vehicle charging strategy in regional NSW, meanwhile, attracted $162,204 in spending.

The spending follows NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey last year pledging to reduce advertising media costs by $30m a year after campaign expenditure topped $90m in the nine-month period following the March 2023 election.

NSW Finance Minister Courtney Houssos said “spending controls the Minns Labor Government implemented resulted in a 42 per cent drop in advertising spend across government agencies.”

“We inherited a financial mess from the former Liberal-National Government with spending and debt out of control,” she said.

“We are on track to deliver our savings and maintain fiscal discipline, while rebuilding the public services our communities rely on.”

The new figures show Transport for NSW had the greater number of advertising campaigns for any department – with 61 over the 12-month period – including $4.8m on a campaign about casual spending and $3.5m on one relating to double demerits.

Almost $1m was spent spruiking Vivid Sydney.

Multiple campaigns across various department were designed at attracting staff including $200,490 on a NSW Police campaign called “you should be a cop”.

There were also various campaigns for NSW events, including $124,572 on the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House, $1.4m to promote the Kandinsky and Louise Bourgeois exhibitions at the Art Gallery of NSW and $973,913 to spruik Vivid 2024.

The Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences had 13 campaigns, including $27,692 to promote the 100 Climate Conversations events.

Advertising included spending on an e-scooter campaign.

The Sydney Opera House spent $1.2m on campaigns including shows such as Sweeney Todd, Romeo & Juliet, and Steve Lacey

The Department of Education spent $2.3m on advertising, including campaigns raising awareness of school attendance and the Sydney Morning Herald’s independent school guide.

The release of the figures follow a NSW audit report into advertising campaigns by Transport for NSW calling for improvements in how government advertising is carried out.

The report found that while a campaign aimed at promoting regional road safety achieved many of its objectives, the department could not confidently demonstrate the campaign’s effectiveness partly due to a lack of cost-benefit analysis.