WHITEHALL departments are to use the Scottish government as a model in running social-issue advertising campaigns. Heads of social marketing in London have been particularly impressed with the branding clarity of such initiatives as Healthier Scotland, Safer Scotland, Smarter Scotland and the One Scotland campaign.

A practitioners' group at the Cabinet Office, keen to streamline the separate marketing strategies of around 1800 UK-wide government bodies, believes Scotland is the best example of the positive impact that co-ordinated public messages and branding can have.

Roger Williams, head of marketing at the Scottish government, said: "A lot of colleagues in Whitehall departments have asked to see our work and have taken their cue from what we've been doing. They're using our model because we've got a track record in branding that cuts through the logo soup to establish something simple and meaningful."

He added: "When I worked in a Whitehall department many years ago, you wouldn't think Scotland had anything to teach London, but now we have the evidence we are ahead."

The Scottish government's recent campaigns on organ donation and the fight against drug dealers won gold and silver at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising awards on Tuesday. Williams said such initiatives were producing demonstrable social change, citing a 33% rise in registered organ donors and the arrest of around 600 drug dealers.

"An lot of nonsense has been written about social marketing, that it's a waste of money, but we've shown the way it can be done effectively," he said. "Changing people's behaviour is the hardest thing to do, but government has a responsibility to set out an example and inform people. Unless you get your branding right, you're going to fail because no-one's going to understand you."

Professor Gerard Hastings, director of the Institute for Social Marketing at Stirling University, believes advertising campaigns can help tackle Scotland's health problems, but warned there was no room for complacency.

"We haven't got it social marketing quite right yet," he said. "When men in parts of Glasgow have a life expectancy of less than 54 years, lower than in Baghdad, something is amiss. That's not to say there hasn't been good work done; but in public health there's been an ad-hocery about applying a strategic vision."

Speaking ahead of tomorrow's social marketing conference in Edinburgh, Professor Hastings said there was much to be learned from the latest techniques used by commercial advertisers. "You've got to seduce rather than compel, which really involves the consumer and understanding their needs," he said. "The commercial sector start with a need. We have to do the same, and find ways to turn people on, reach the concerns people have rather than telling them what to do."

Linda Dunion, who co-ordinated the widely acclaimed See Me campaign addressing the stigma around mental illness, said: "Rather than creating hard-hitting, sophisticated adverts, we spent a lot of time listening and speaking to people so it was informed by their experiences and was inclusive from the beginning."

Williams said the government's marketing department were now using the subtlety necessary in an age of cynical, fragmenting audiences. "We are beginning to move toward more engaging campaigns and increasingly using television adverts less," he said.