Census ads could spell trouble for the ABS
The ABS launched a new 'reminder' ad after the crash. Photo: YouTube
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has claimed its Census is going swimmingly, but advertising experts believe the amount of Census advertising still running suggests a panic.
Australians were asked to complete the Census on August 9, before a spectacular system breakdown threw a spanner in the works.
As of last week, the ABS claimed about 65 per cent of the forms had been completed – with just over three weeks until the September 23 deadline.
“With more than 6.5 million forms now completed, the Census is tracking well and we’ve received a great response from the Australian public,” said Duncan Young, Head of Census 2016.
But Census advertising continues to run on television, radio and social media, leading Dr Paul Harrison, advertising lecturer at Deakin University, to suggest the ABS is worried.
“They would have real time data saying who has submitted online and … it would be saying, ‘We need to run more ads’,” he said.
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Census fail
The Census website crashed around dinnertime on August 9 and remained offline for two days while ABS officials scrambled to explain the failure.
Russell Howcroft, former advertising CEO and panellist on the ABC’s Gruen Transfer, predicted one week after the crash that the ABS was not receiving the numbers it needed.
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“Given that they’re running advertising they’re obviously nowhere near the 10 million,” Howcroft said on the ABC show, arguing that the number of ads in the following weeks would give away the ABS’ frame of mind.
“This is going to be really good to watch if the ads are still on next week, and the week after, and the week after,” he said.
In 2011, the Census was completed by 98.5 per cent of the population, using both online and paper forms.
The ABS’ worst fears were realised on Census night.
Last week, the ABS launched its 38,000-strong army of Census field officers onto the streets, tasked with reminding citizens of their civic duty to complete the form.
Dr Harrison said the advertising budget had very likely blown out.
“This would not have been built into their original budget,” he told The New Daily.
A spokeswoman for the ABS said she could not provide a number on the advertising budget given the Census was “not yet complete” – signalling the ads weren’t about to stop.
Dr Harrison said estimating the cost of the campaign was difficult given the federal government buys huge chunks of television advertising every year, but noted that a single 30-second spot (which have been running continuously for weeks) usually costs between $5000 and $25,000.
Head of Census Duncan Young has had a tough few months. Photo: Channel Nine
Is it working?
Despite the advertising push, Dr Harrison suggested the ABS ads might not be having the intended effect on the public.
He said the build-up to the Census, namely speculation about privacy breaches, followed by a system crash, had only confirmed some of the public’s grievances.
“People are constantly looking for messages that confirm their current belief,” Dr Harrison said, arguing that the continued presence of Census ads could be working against the ABS.
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“We talk about different ‘publics’ in advertising, and the ABS has two publics: citizens and the government,” he said.
“[With the ads] they’re also trying to show the government that they’re a good government authority and they’re giving everyone ample opportunity.”
