Will safety come last in a recession?

UCATT, the construction union, has warned of the dangers of cutting safety in a recession; both from the provision of inadequate, cheaper PPE and from workers feeling under pressure to perform unsafe tasks in the face of potential redundancy.

Health and Safety suppliers may unwittingly contribute to this, as health and safety marketing budgets are slashed. The prominence of many leading suppliers’ health and safety marketing campaigns is a great driver in reminding managers and workers of the importance of keeping standards high – and the consequences if they are not. If this noise drops away, a valuable reminder tool will be lost.

Balancing the need to keep volume of marketing messages at a certain level with the squeeze on budgets mean that suppliers running health and safety marketing campaigns need to start thinking smarter. Much of the health and safety advertising is unimaginative and does not work as hard as it could. Health and safety suppliers need to look at creative, effective and response orientated mechanisms to reach their target audiences.

At Clear we are advising on creative strategies which differentiate health and safety companies, resulting in cost effective campaigns which have that necessary impact.

Julie Clare – Managing Director