The single submission route and the billing requirement stand out as challenges of public tenders

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
The single submission route and the billing requirement stand out as challenges of public tenders

The assessment of the economic offer lower than the creative proposal, the requirement of a high turnover and the establishment of a only way of presentation of ideas are the three areas in which the call for public advertising competitions has worsened in the second quarter of this year.

This is reflected in the new wave of Observatory of Public Advertising and Communication Competitions, powered by The Faith and the Association for Transformative Creativity (ACT). On this occasion, it has been taken into consideration 106 contests advertising with a budget equal to or greater than 100,000 euros. In total, the contests analyzed have totaled an estimated total budget of 173.4 million euros, which represents 85% of the total advertising and media contests.

However, it is worth noting that between April 1 and June 30 of this year, administrations have called 1,589 public tenders requesting all types of services related to advertising and communication. Of them, 387 have requested advertising, creativity and/or media purchasing servicess, 106 of which exceed 100,000 euros and have been the subject of this analysis.

Non-compliance with criteria grows three points compared to the first quarter

The main finding of this wave of the Observatory is that 74.3% of the contests called in the second quarter of 2024 do not meet the criteria considered appropriate by the main associations in the sector. This represents an increase compared to the 71.5% registered in the first quarter.

It should be remembered that said criteria are: that the financial offer is not the main award criterion; that the deadline for submitting projects is equal to or greater than three weeks; that budgets are not excessively reduced in relation to the service; that does not restrict competition; that establish two routes of presentation; and that billing demands are reasonable.

Failure to comply with criteria

Breaking down the non-compliance with criteria, this edition of the research points out that the most non-compliance is that of the presentation routes, with the 98.1% of the contests analyzed establishing only the electronic formula as an option to present proposals. The figure reflects an increase compared to the 95.1% reached in the first quarter.

The requirement for reasonable billing is the second most unfulfilled criterion in the second quarter, with the 92.7% of contests requiring high billings without justified cause. This, according to La Fede and ACT, prevents the participation of medium and small-sized agencies and companies, and therefore limits competition.
The figure also grows compared to 87.9% in the first quarter.

Furthermore, more than half of the tenders (55%) value the lowest price over creative and technical proposalsan issue that sector associations consider illogical when evaluating the best advertising and communication campaigns.
Non-compliance with this criterion also increases compared to the first quarter, when it stood at 51.3%.

Specifically, according to the Observatory, 55 contests establish the economic offer as the main or only award criterion, ahead of the technical proposals. In 13 of these contests the price is the only criterion, since the rules give 100% weight to the economic offer, and in 20 the price represents between 70% and 91% of the final evaluation.

Finally, 51.4% of the contests analyzed present deadlines for submitting proposals of less than three weekswhich means insufficient time to be able to carry out and plan the advertising campaign or actions adequately.
This is the only criterion that evolves positively, experiencing a slight decrease compared to 51.8% in the first quarter.

26 contests had submission deadlines of less than 15 days

This means that there were 54 contests analyzed that did not meet the criterion of establishing a submission period of more than three weeks. In 26 contests, the agencies had to present their proposals in less than 15 days, and another 28 gave a deadline of 16 to 21 days.

Non-compliance by administrations

Putting the focus on the administrations that call for public advertising contests, of the 106 contests analyzed, 10 were called by the central administration, 7 by the regional administration; 29 for the local, 3 for the provincial, and 57 for public companies.

The ones that most fail to meet the criteria are local, with 80.3% of the cases. The figure grows from the 59.4% obtained in the first quarter. In second place is the administration autonomouswith 75.7% of the cases; followed by administration provincial (75%) and administration central (70%). The public companies They are the ones that breach the criteria the least, although non-compliance occurs in 69.1% of cases.

Featured contests

With each wave of the Observatory, La Fede and ACT highlight contests that have strikingly failed to meet criteria. Thus, on this occasion he mentions the one summoned by the Valencian Community for the planning and purchase of media for an advertising campaign to disseminate the tourist offer. It had a budget of 37.4 million euros, and required participating companies to justify a business volume equal to or greater than that figure. In addition, it gave 25 days for the presentation of proposals and this had to be done exclusively electronically.

It also cites the tender called by the Contracting Board of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, for creativity, design, realization and production services of the institutional advertising campaign on vocational training. It had a budget of 150,000 euros and was processed urgently, so it only granted 10 days for the presentation of proposals.