RFPs

Revised Communication Plan Development SOW

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an RFP for “consulting services that will support the communication plan development for the Office of External Affairs.”

The agency will be tasked with, “improving internal and external communications.” No budget figures were disclosed, however the contract is for one year. Proposals are due by June 7th.

News Corporation is currently readying a digital news subscription service, and the company is looking for a PR firm to help them during the process.

The new service would feature News Corporation’s content alongside content of other publishers, to create a digital news consortium with the goal of getting people to pay for news content.

Peter Kafka of AllThingsD reports, “they [News Corp.] have been casting about for a public relations agency to help promote the plan, and have been telling prospective candidates about their proposed schedule.”

News Corp. declined to comment.

A source with knowledge of the agency search told PRNewser that News Corp. was seeking agencies a few weeks ago. They’re looking for “a real global firm that can help them cope with this in the U.K. and U.S.,” the source said.

California Department of Public Health Network for a Healthy California RFP

The California Department of Public Health Network for a Healthy California has issued an RFP for a firm to develop and implement a comprehensive media, advertising and public relations campaign to support a larger multi-level social marketing campaign.

The budget is $39.5 million dollars, for a three year contract beginning October 1, 2010. Written questions are due May 6th, letter of intent to bid is due June 29th and the RFP closes on July 27th.

The mission of the Network for a Healthy California (Network) is to “create innovative partnerships that empower low-income Californians to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, and food security with the goal of preventing obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases.”

Feld Entertainment 2010 PR RFP

Feld Entertainment, the company behind the Ringling Bros. and the Barnum & Bailey Circus, has issued a national PR RFP.

The RFP is for a two year contract to handle “strategic counsel, corporate branding, national media relations (including online media and television programming, beyond traditional news and entertainment outlets) and celebrity outreach,” among other initiatives.

A Feld spokesperson confirmed to PRNewser that Hill & Knowlton is the incumbent agency. The budget for the RFP is $30,000 per month.

Agencies must submit their intent to submit by April 23rd, with final proposals due May 3rd.

United Airlines chose Edelman as the company’s first PR agency of record, finalizing a process that began in October 2009. PRNewser first reported on the company’s agency search.

Robin Urbanski, Media Relations Manager at United Airlines told PRNewser in late January, “We are in the last stages of review with some finalists.” The process took the airliner longer than expected.

One of the reasons for that could be because the company cast “an amazingly wide net,” as Ketchum CEO Ray Kotcher told PRNewser. We had heard more than 20 agencies were invited to pitch.

Edelman won a three year contract. Budget was not disclosed. United also did not disclose other agencies involved in the pitch, according to PRWeek.

“I Love NY” PR RFP

Can your agency improve on the iconic “I Love New York” campaign? If so, the Empire State’s Dept. of Economic Development wants to hear from you.

The agency released an open RFP on April 7 with a deadline of May 10.

Lynne Kramer, Contract Administrator for the Office of Fiscal Management is leading the efforts internally.

Heineken USA has issued a PR RFP for its Dos Equis brand, Tara Carraro, Senior Director, Corporate Communications at Heineken USA told PRNewser today.

Rogers and Cowan is the incumbent and will not participate in the pitch. R & C has worked with Dos Equis for two years, and will retain the product placement portion of the business.

The “brand PR” RFP will include social media work, although Carrara said it is “too early in the process” to say whether Dos Equis will have one agency handle the entire scope of work, or whether they will separate social media with another agency.

The company hopes to have the process finalized by mid-May.”Certainly with any agency partner, regardless of brand, one looks for an agency that understands the target consumer and can create compelling messages to engage that consumer,” said Carrara.

First on PRNewser: Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI) has issued an RFP for global PR support, the company confirmed to PRNewser today. Pitney Bowes is most known for its corporate mail and documents products and services.

The closing date on the RFP has passed, said Matt Broder, Vice President, External Communications.

He said the RFP is, “an effort on our part to test market among incumbents as well as new agencies.”

Incumbents include CJP Communications, Schwartz Communications and Hill & Knowlton in North America. Broder declined to comment on budget.

Pitney Bowes had 2009 revenues of $5.6 billion and 33,000 employees.

The U.S. Army is seeking to award a $2.5 million, four-month contract for “strategic communication, media monitoring, engagement, research, and Web development for the US Forces-Iraq (USF-I),” PRWeek reports.

Fulcra Worldwide has been handling the initiatives since 2003, says O’Dwyer’s.

Fulcra’s contract will expire on March 22nd of this year, and an Army document states that a lapse in service “would be severely detrimental to the Strategic Communications Division mission during the critical time period following Iraqi elections due to be held on March 7, 2010.”

RFPs can be a major time suck. Every agency head or new business director knows that, so they try and choose carefully as to which RFPs they really put their “all” into, and which ones they decline to participate in.

Agency heads PRNewser has spoken to from the “hot shops” often like to boast that they don’t do open RFP “cattle calls,” as we called them in a recent post.

Nevertheless, they are often a necessary task in growing an agency.

Jennifer Modarelli, owner and principal of digital marketing agency White Horse, gives her top four disturbing RFP trends in an Advertising Age byline.

Basically they can be summed up in two points: getting invited to the pitch late is annoying, and not getting any feedback on why you didn’t win the business is more annoying. Read Modarelli’s full take here.

[Image via Flickr]