Govt’s Three Waters ads campaign
Mayor part of Three Waters group
The Government paid $28,613 for key advice which shaped its Three Waters advertising campaign last year. Kim Wicksteed, a consultant and former CEO of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, was paid $25,024 for a “marketing and communications “strategy, delivered in December 2020, for the Government’s water infrastructure reform programme, known as Three Waters.
In addition, Wicksteed was paid $3588 to participate in the “Three Waters Reform Programme Critical Friends Advisory Group “last year (both figures include GST and were paid to Wicksteed’s one-man consultancy Advice Ltd).
Wicksteed’s strategy shaped a contentious “public information and education campaign “which has so far cost the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) some $3 million — excluding the price of staff and consultants. The campaign ultimately failed in its main aim, which was to win, through public support, councils’ voluntary agreement to adopt the Government’s reform programme for storm, waste and drinking water.
The department released the figures under the Official Information Act.
Wicksteed recommended a communications strategy that focused first on “emotive marketing” over a more traditional “information first” public service-style campaign.
As per Wicksteed’s advice, the communications plan aimed squarely at evoking an emotional response over supplying information. At its centre was a paid advertising campaign to promote the need for Three Waters, produced by creative agency FCB New Zealand. Local government representatives overwhelmingly denounced the advertising, some describing it as “fear mongering “and “propaganda“.
It also prompted warnings from the Public Service Commission that the ads were “concerning” in the light of government advertising guidelines that say such work should only be undertaken to fill an “identifiable and justifiable “information need.
The advertising, which ran on television, in print media and online, presented among its cartoon images a slime-covered child swimming, a sick duck and other dirty, unhappy creatures; it also warned of “nasties in the water”.
The Public Service Commission said it had no opportunity to review the first advertisement, over which it voiced concern. A second advertisement was reviewed by the commission and revised before airing, and a third was cancelled before being used.
The deputy chief executive of the DIA, Michael Lovett, said “critical friends “was an advisory group, not a decisionmaking body. “Its expertise and advice helped shape elements of the campaign and provided a sounding board for content and direction. “Not all individual viewpoints were always able to be accommodated and the final responsibility for the TV advertisement content remained with the department.”
Most in the group were drawn from staff within the Department of Internal Affairs itself and from the ranks of consultants in, or lately in, the department’s pay. It also included Avon Adams, then the senior press secretary for the Minister for Local Government, Nanaia Mahuta. Those drawn from the public sector or local government were not paid for their contribution.
Among the “critical friends” who were paid consultants (or recently paid consultants) to the department’s Three Waters unit were: Raphael Hilbron, partner at public relations consultancy SenateSHJ, whose speciality is reputation management; Jennie Smeaton, a full-time contractor to the DIA until April 2021, and at the time of the “critical friends “meetings the COO of Te Runanga o Toa Rangatira, the mandated iwi authority for Ngati Toa Rangatira; Katy Te Amo, a consultant on Maori issues to DIA in 2020, and, as of January 2021, head of strategy and insights at the newly established drinking water regulator Taumata Arowai, a Crown entity; and Wicksteed. It’s not clear how much Smeaton and Hilbron were paid for their work. A department spokesperson said: “[Their] involvement in the Critical Friends Advisory Group was part of their wider advisory work for the Department of Internal Affairs.”
It appears that the group was belatedly augmented with voices outside of central government. Late additions, following the TV advertisement launch and strong criticism from local councils, were Susan Freeman-Greene and Bridgit Sissons from Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ), and Nigel Corry, chief executive at Greater Wellington Regional Council. Corry said he doesn’t consider that he was a member of the group but, on invitation, he attended its final meeting. “After the ads were televised, we were added to the Critical Friends Advisory Group [in time only for its final meeting].”
Local Government NZ chief executive Susan Freeman-Greene confirmed: “we repeatedly provided feedback to say the ads were provocative and had landed very poorly with the sector [which] found them insulting. Accordingly, we asked for the campaign to be called to a halt.”
Lovett said the group convened four times, in May, June and July 2021, and was composed of 18 members who attended at least one meeting.
Freeman-Greene noted her group was provided with “high-level concepts” of the advertising campaign just before it went public, through participation in a different group: the Three Waters Steering Committee.
The only other representative of elected local government in the “critical friends “group was Central Hawke’s Bay mayor Alex Walker. “I was part of a couple of brief meetings with this group. I saw early concepts but never the complete TV advertisement or copy. Some of the critical feedback I gave was reflected in small changes, but it was always made very clear that the ownership of the strategy and decision-making sat with DIA,” Walker said.
Other external voices were Heather Shotter, then chief executive of Palmerston North City Council, and James Palmer, chief executive at Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.