Why influencers have a place in public sector campaigns

The UK government has spent £2.3m on influencers in the last two years. Rather than fearing the headlines, PR professionals should ask whether creators can reach audiences traditional media can’t.

By Tim Ridgway

It’s been a while since I’ve seen “public sector PR campaign” and “waste of taxpayers’ money” in the same sentence.

As a former town hall reporter, I must admit I was responsible for a fair few of those stories back in the day.

But the most recent article about the UK government spending £2.3 million on influencers since taking office in July 2024 really got me thinking. It felt unnecessary, uninformed and also un-newsworthy.

The criticisms, originating largely from legacy media that once held a near monopoly over public advertising spend, inevitably focus on the costs involved. But what these stories fail to capture is that working with digital-savvy creators is not about bypassing journalists or the wider public debate.

It’s about building connections with hard-to-reach audiences, generating direct engagement and being smarter about how taxpayers’ money is used - so that people who need support can access it and change their lives.

For those reasons, PR professionals across all sectors would be wise to look beyond the headlines and carry on commissioning the creators – but only, I believe, if they meet three key tests.

How government is using influencers

As an industry leader which champions best practice, the UK government’s communications service has been utilising influencers for several years. And what started as the occasional “let’s try this thing out” tactic has become an established part of the public sector campaign toolkit.

In recent months, influencers have taken a starring role in promoting topics including how to access benefits, anti-vaping public health campaigns, and the recruitment of prison officers. The drive has been led by the Cabinet Office-based New Media Unit, which, according to a report from Civil Service World in December, has almost 20 staff and an annual messaging budget of £13.2m.

With the first TikTok Prime Minister now in Downing Street, we can expect this figure to grow as parliament progresses. This isn’t just a Whitehall phenomenon. Public sector organisations around the world are increasingly exploring the possibilities of peer-to-peer promotion.

Destination marketing is perhaps the most established example. The Isle of Man’s direct commissioning approach ruffled feathers with local creators, while Visit Scotland has an established model that includes inviting applications through its website.

Another example is an influencer-led public information campaign commissioned by Irish authorities to challenge terms such as “tradwife” and the “manosphere”.

Other parts of the public sector, however, remain slow to take up the approach, perhaps limited by budgets, lack of senior leadership buy-in and worries over reputational risks.

What happened when I used influencers

Working in local government, I’ve experienced all of the above challenges first-hand. However, I recently had the opportunity to work with influencers as part of a wider campaign to engage directly with hard-to-reach groups.

The programme I oversaw had been failing for the previous two years, with sign-ups 50% below targets. A deep-dive into the data told us we needed to meet our audience on their terms. And as part of a radical overhaul, we secured senior buy-in to commission an influencer agency to source nano and micro-influencers to engage our target groups through peer-to-peer promotion.

The content was strong and direct traffic generated excellent engagement. But the actual outcomes were minimal. Not a single person enrolled directly after seeing the content. Thankfully, other tactics proved a lot more successful.

In fact, the influencer spending could have been seen as counterproductive: it prompted questions from local media outlets which, perhaps surprisingly, framed it as a "waste of taxpayers’ money".

Would I change my approach? Definitely not. But it did leave me with three tests for anyone considering working with influencers.

Three tests for working with influencers

Due diligence is essential

Working with the wrong person, particularly someone whose background or views are at odds with your cause, can cause huge reputational damage to an organisation. Get buy-in for the approach, bring in agency support if you can, and make vetting as important a part of the process as content co-creation.

Be guided by the evidence

As with every campaign, the starting point must be a well-evidenced strategy, with agreed objectives and defined audiences. If there are more effective and efficient ways to achieve your goals, then steer clear of the content creators.

Make influencers part of the mix

How many TikToks have there been involving eggs and baskets? As with any campaign, a broad mix of channels will usually be more resilient than relying on one big hit. Are these tests perfect? No. But I’ve found they provide a useful framework for deciding when and how to work with influencers. While traditional media may not like it, influencers are not going away.

PR professionals, including those working in organisations with limited budgets, therefore need the confidence and skills to work with creators where the evidence supports it, incorporating them into broader communications, engagement and marketing strategy.

Tim Ridgway is a Chartered PR professional Tim Ridgway is a Chartered PR professional who has led communications, engagement and marketing teams in the public and third sectors. He is currently strategic stakeholder engagement manager at Surrey County Council. Tim was a panel member for the recent CIPR Engage podcast, Creating Effective PR and Communications Campaigns.