In order to get information about educational issues across to hard-pressed parents, the DfES decided to take a collaborative approach and work with supermarket chain Asda.
The DfES believed that the most appropriate way of targeting hard-to-reach parents was while they were shopping in the supermarket. So all the various pieces of information from a wide range of sources would be repackaged and made available in-store.
‘Supermarkets are becoming the new town squares,’ says Smalley.
‘We shortlisted two - Tesco and Asda - according to the demographic profile of their audiences and the target audience we wanted to reach. We finally went with Asda because of its enthusiasm for the project and because it had just overtaken Marks & Spencer as the largest retailer of school uniforms.’
It was important to differentiate the various different government messages aimed at this group to avoid confusion and clutter, says Smalley. ‘We knew that 35 different messages were being put out to Britain’s parents by government departments at that time. So creating a new platform was appealing.’
While the DfES works regularly with private businesses, this was the first time it had worked with one as a partner rather than a sponsor. Relationships between government departments and commercial organisations must adhere to strict Cabinet Office guidelines, which, in effect, ensure they are not undertaken to the commercial benefit of the company. The Asda partnership required and received Cabinet Office approval. The on-going relationship was then managed day-to-day by Smalley and her colleagues at the DfES.
