UK Government explores YouTube as marketing medium

Stan Beer
Sunday, 20 August 2006 17:57

Your IT - Home IT

UK Government officials have begun using the video file sharing website YouTube to see how they can take advantage of its technology to get their messages to target audiences.

Senior executives at the Cabinet Office have posted their first two short films on YouTube.com, under the username 'publicservice'.

The Government is interested to look at YouTube's wider potential as a communication tool.

Its new initiative was discovered by Public Sector Forums, the independent UK network of eGovernment professionals.

Officials have turned to YouTube to spread the message about their plans to overhaul public services through IT.

Their first online video is a short promotional film explaining their 'Transformational Government' strategy.

A second, slightly longer clip concerns Whitehall plans to save money by consolidating service departments and the leadership challenges this poses for managers.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said today: "YouTube is just one example of how people are changing the way they communicate all the time.

"Government needs to keep pace with these changes and ensure we are always looking at new ways to reach people with the things that they need to know.

"We are open to new ways of communicating, we are watching the digital revolution all the time and developing our own ways in government to communicate.

"Putting our transformational government film on YouTube is one way of trialling this and will inform our own thinking on this phenomenon."

Ian Dunmore, Director of Public Sector Forums said: "This looks like the first time a government anywhere has used YouTube in this way. It's a ground-breaking move and one other governments might well follow. However we don't expect the videos to surge to the top of the popularity chart just yet."