Through Freedom of Information (FOI), The Drum has learned that the total marketing budget following appointments made through The Scottish Government Framework's collaborative partners roster last year totalled over £5million.

The cost of 2009’s budgeted appointments made through the framework comes to £5,044,994 with 167 projects being tasked across 32 different companies from the marketing, direct marketing, digital, events, research, design and PR sectors.

The numbers exclude retained accounts already held by framework companies, but refer to new appointments made through the new framework last year.

The budget set for Caledonian MacBrayne Ferries is £400,000 which will include a new TV campaign for early this year and another for 2012/2013, both of which will be handled by The Bridge.

The largest net budget spend for a single agency was picked up by The Union at £613,853, closely followed by The Leith Agency at £574,054, although that figure includes PR work handled by Stripe.

The largest digital budget was picked up by Dog Digital with a digital marketing campaign for Scottish Enterprise set at £115,000, while the same agency also developed the Glasgow 2014 website with a budget of £75,000.

Events company Sound and Vision has the largest number of project appointments last year, with 31 projects across varying projects spanning from conference organisation to film editing costs.

Over £1million was set for research costs with a total budget of £1,140,709 budgeted, the largest of which was £202,500 for a Health Improvement Strategy, conducted by TNS System 3.

£336, 341 was budgeted for events last year while £1,109, 658 was budgeted for digital projects. Design projects had a total budget of £577, 248 while marketing communications budgets were set at £1,081,455.

Direct marketing budgets had a total of just £90,000 for Organ Donation while PR had a total budget of £649,549.

The framework includes General Register Office for Scotland, Learning and Teaching Scotland, Registers of Scotland, The Scottish Government (core only), Visit Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Historic Scotland, Scottish Parliament Corporate Body, Quality Meat Scotland, Transport Scotland, Scottish Qualifications Authority, Skills Development Scotland Co Ltd, HM Inspectorate of Education, Cycling Scotland, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority, Scottish Enterprise, NHS Health Scotland, Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, Scottish Courts Service, Accountant in Bankruptcy, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, CalMac Ferries Ltd, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Social Work Inspection Agency, Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, NHS National Services Scotland and Scottish Ambulance Service.

It is likely that the Scottish Government's marketing budget will more than halve in 2010.

The agengies working with the marketing framework were announced on December 2008.