ADD2592 Analytics project for Talk London

1.1.    Talk London is City Hall’s online community, which supports the Mayor and the GLA in placing Londoners’ needs at the centre of its strategies and programmes. It does so by involving citizens in meaningful research, debate and consultation about how to improve the capital.

1.2.    Talk London has an engaged and growing community of Londoners. It has delivered most of City Hall’s online consultations – from clean air and housing to health inequalities, economic development and recovery from COVID-19 – at no cost to policy teams. The Talk London team has also worked on consultations with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, and the London Fire Commissioner. We have demonstrated that the development of compelling, accessible and highly shareable content has the capacity to drive huge audience reach and engagement. 

1.3.    The Talk London website relaunched in 2021 with increased functionality (authorised under MD2535 and MD2720). Londoners are encouraged to take part and have their say on Talk London via surveys, discussions and idea-generation activities. There is also the functionality to provide background information to users. 

1.4.    In order to better understand, and increase transparency of, Talk London acquisition and engagement metrics, we wish to procure a digital analytics agency to review our analytics needs; set up and automate analytics for the Talk London site; configure events and tracking for Google Analytics 4 (as Google Universal Analytics is being retired in 2023); and provide training for Google Data Studio dashboards and Google Analytics 4. This procurement will be up to the value of £25,000, and conducted in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code. The Digital team is supportive of this project; the digital analyst will be part of the project team and the procurement panel.

2.1.    The objectives are to commission a specialist agency to support the Talk London team. This agency will have to analytics expertise required to:

• review the analytics needs for Talk London, to understand what metrics we need to interrogate
• configure Google Analytics 4 with events and tracking
• automate Google Analytics 4 into Google Data Studio
• provide training for Google Analytics 4 and Google Data Studio, and support a project team to set up dashboards
• set up Google Data Studio dashboards.

2.2.    The analytics project is expected to have the following outcomes:

• to dynamically track up-to-date campaign and conversion metrics, revealing insights that we can use to take actions – including product changes, and engagement and acquisition tactics
• to increase efficiency when looking at metrics, by decreasing the time taken to get and share campaign metrics 
• to provide greater transparency on engagement campaign metrics, by sharing dynamic campaign dashboards with policy teams
• the Talk London team will be able to independently build or adapt dynamic analytics dashboards in Google Data studio, with less need for external support in the future.
   

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Mayor and the GLA are subject to the public sector equality duty and must have due regard to the need to: 

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not 
• foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.

3.2.    The “protected characteristics” are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage/civil partnership status. The duty involves having appropriate regard to these matters as they apply in the circumstances, including having regard to the need to: remove or minimise any disadvantage suffered by those who share or are connected to a protected characteristic; take steps to meet the different needs of such people; and encourage them to participate in public life or in any other activity where their participation is disproportionately low. This can involve treating people with a protected characteristic more favourably than those without one.

3.3.    By revealing important metrics and data insights, we will be able to take actions to make it easier for all Londoners to participate in Talk London and engage with City Hall content. 
 

Key risks

4.1.    A risk is that we end up with an agency that doesn’t understand our analytics needs. To mitigate risk, the Talk London team will consult with the data analyst in the digital team, and include her on the procurement panel. 

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities:

4.2.    As part of his 2021 manifesto, the Mayor has stated that he wants to build stronger communities and is determined to hear from Londoners directly, in part using the Talk London community as one of the channels to do this. Through online engagement activities, Talk London allows Londoners to participate in the design, development and delivery of strategies, policies and programmes. 

Consultations and impact assessments, including data protection

4.3.    The Talk London privacy policy is compliant with the Data Protection Act 2018, the GLA Data Protection Policy and the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

Conflicts of interest

4.4.    There are no known potential or perceived conflicts of interest from any of those involved in the drafting or clearance of this form.
 

5.1.    The Assistant Director’s approval is sought for expenditure of up to £25,000, to procure the services of a digital analytics agency to support the Talk London team. This support will constitute setting up and automating analytics for the Talk London site, and providing training. 

5.2.    The expenditure will be funded from the Talk London 2022-23 budget held within the City Intelligence Unit.
 

6.1.    The Talk London Digital Engagement and Product Manager will manage the project, working closely with colleagues from the Digital team and the Technology Group.

6.2.    If there is any Talk London development work that needs to be done as part of the analytics project, it will be delivered via existing Technology Group supplier contracts.

6.3.    TfL Procurement has been consulted, and it advised that this work can be procured through a request for quotation process. Procurement will commence as soon as is practicable following this decision.