The Central Office
of Information (COI) has announced that it will create a
centralised media buying framework, meaning that one company will
handle all of its media buying.
To date, COI has tendered its media buying contracts by medium.
These arrangements are set to expire in March 2010.
Full integration across media platforms and channels is expected
to deliver a number of benefits for both COI and its government
and public sector clients.
As the media landscape is transforming, pulling all COI spend
together - digital, mainstream and sponsorship - will deliver
increased efficiencies both within and across channels, including
further savings on media costs.
It will also lead to even more effective campaigns as COI
embraces new and emerging opportunities into its solutions. Plus,
a more streamlined administrative process and more efficient
gathering of data will speed up the evaluation process.
Peter Buchanan, COI Deputy Chief Executive said:
"Our media buying performance has been outstanding with
nine years of continuous improvement and very impressive results
compared to the Billett's pool. The support we have
received from our clients has been a key factor in this
success.
“However, the market is changing with the
integration of on and offline, multi channel media ownership and
deeper partnerships with media owners. COI needs to maintain a
market leading position and continue to deliver the very best
prices for all our clients.”
COI’s decision to create
one single supplier framework forms part of its ongoing ‘Agenda
for Integration’ announced last April following an independent
review of its media buying systems by RAB (Radio Advertising
Bureau) founder and media industry expert, Douglas McArthur OBE.
The review, which captured a wide range of industry opinion from
media owners, agencies and other government departments,
recognised that media buying does not exist in isolation, but
needs to be defined within a wider planning system and a much more
inter-related and interactive ‘media ecology’ that delivers
effective integrated solutions.
All suppliers interested in applying for the contract should
register at coi.bravosolution.co.uk and complete the
pre-qualification questionnaire by 25 September 2009.
COI welcomes applications from consortia and holding companies as
well as individual organisations.
Questions about the contract can be sent via the messaging tool
on the website, and questions and answers relevant to all
applicants will be published online. Suppliers should not
telephone queries to COI direct.
Notes to Editors
• COI currently has six media buying contracts covering Cinema,
Interactive/Online media. Outdoor, Press, Radio and TV. For a full
list of the incumbent agencies.
• COI was one of the first advertisers to introduce
centralised buying. Currently around 95% of its media buying is
centralised. The remainder relates to specialist areas of
recruitment and statutory notice advertising handled by agencies
on its recruitment-advertising framework.
• The latest COI annual report and accounts shows that
government departments and public sector bodies spent a total of
£211m on media and £40m on online advertising during 2008/9.
Please contact Rhona de la Mer or Tracey Cobbett or COI on 020
7261 8306 or 8763 to arrange an interview or ask further
questions.
Contacts:
COI Press Office.
prenquiries@coi.gsi.gov.uk