PRESOL | R | Ready Campaign Support Services

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF AUGUST 14, 2009 FBO #2820
SOLICITATION NOTICE

R -- Ready Campaign Support Services

Notice Date: 8/12/2009
Notice Type: Justification and Approval (J&A)
NAICS: 541810 — Advertising Agencies
Contracting Office: Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Disaster Operations & IT Section, 500 C Street SW, Patriots Plaza -- 5th Floor, Washington, District of Columbia, 20472
ZIP Code: 20472
Solicitation Number: HSFEHQ09R0072
Archive Date: 8/27/2009
Point of Contact: Hoa Crews, Phone: 5405422226
E-Mail Address: hoa.crews@associates.dhs.gov
(hoa.crews@associates.dhs.gov)
Small Business Set-Aside: N/A
Award Number: HSFEHQ09D0982
Award Date: 8/12/2009
Description: JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION Part I Pursuant to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) as implemented by FAR Subpart 6.3 and in accordance with the requirements of FAR 6.303-1, the justification for the use of the statutory authority under FAR Subpart 6.3 is justified by the following facts and rationale required under FAR 6.303-2 as follows: (1) Agency and Contracting Activity. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) / Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Office of External Affairs, XXXX, 500 C St SW, Washington, D.C. 20472, Phone: XXXX, Email: XXXX, has a requirement for services in support of the Ready campaign. (2) Nature and/or description of the action being approved. The Ready Campaign has a requirement on a sole source basis for a public service advertising (PSA) campaign to educate and encourage Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies whether natural or man-made. Recommend award to a non-profit organization - Ad Council, 261 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016. (3) Description of Supplies/Services. Ready must have the ability to reach a large audience of Americans through many different mechanisms with a clear and simple message. Therefore, the Campaign requires specialized services from an organization that can create and develop public service messages and advertisements that are strategically sound and relevant to the audience; have an established network in place and history of strong relationships with advertisers, media, and public service directors and media organizations to get these public service advertisements placed in donated media space (this is customary for public service messages); have ability and capacity to work with state and local governments to allow them to tag these national advertisements with their own local logo and assist them in garnering donated media space in their state or community; have ability to tap into top talent in the advertising, social marketing, and communications fields to help in the creation and development of new messages and advertisements in a voluntary capacity; and have the ability to conduct research on Americans attitudes and behaviors on emergency preparedness. The requirement is to: • Distribute the Ready Campaign's messages through existing public service advertisements - The Campaign's existing television, radio, print, outdoor, and Internet public service advertisements need to be renewed and continue to be distributed to media outlets across the nation until they expire. • Distribute the Ready Campaign's messages through new public service advertisements - New television, radio, print, outdoor, and Internet public service advertisements need to be researched, developed, produced and distributed to media outlets across the country. This includes new public service advertisements for the general market, Hispanic market, business market, families with children and other segments of the population as needed. It also includes ads that can be localized by state and local governments. • Create and develop new public service advertisements - The Ready Campaign's public service advertisements are created and developed on a cycle basis of approximately two years. Therefore, the contractor will need to be responsible for the development and creation of new public service advertisements and have the ability to tap the expertise of leading advertising, media, and communications professionals on a volunteer basis. • Track the use of the Ready Campaign's public service advertisements - All of the Campaign's television, radio, print, outdoor, and internet public service advertisements need to be tracked to see when, where, and how often they are aired and how much donated media space they are receiving. • Conduct annual tracking studies to measure the Campaign's progress - Studies need to be conducted each year to see how the general market, Hispanic market, business market, families with children and other segments of the population are receiving our messages and if they have taken steps to prepare. • Distribute the Ready Campaign's messages through media outreach and public relations efforts - Conduct media outreach efforts to promote the Campaign including Satellite and Radio Media Tours and other activities. This includes media outreach efforts around National Preparedness Month, Resolve to be Ready, the "teachable moments" leading up to and after an emergency occurs and other news worthy events. • Distribute the Ready Campaign's messages through partnerships - Develop relationships with a wide variety of public and private sector as well as media and non-media organizations to distribute the Campaign's messages. The estimated value of this procurement is $11,400,000.00 as follows: Period Unit Price Total Base Year $2,100,000 $2,100,000 Option Year 1 $2,600,000 $2,600,000 Option Year 2 $3,100,000 $3,100,000 Option Year 3 $3,600,000 $3,600,000 Total $11,400,000 (4) Estimated value of the acquisition: $11,400,000. (5) Identification of Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 USC 2304(c)(1) implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1 entitled "Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements". Demonstration That the Nature of the Acquisition Require Use of the Authority Cited. The Ready Campaign is DHS's public service advertisement campaign designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies whether natural or man-made. This message is delivered through television, radio, print, Internet and outdoor (bus shelters, mall kiosks, and billboards) advertisements. The objective of these advertisements is to educate and raise awareness of a significant social issue and to change the public's attitudes and behaviors by stimulating positive social change. The advertisements are seen as a community service and therefore are mostly run at no charge by the media. For the past five years, Ready has partnered with the Advertising Council known as Ad Council to develop and produce effective public service advertisements (PSA), to distribute these advertisements nationwide to a wide array of media mediums, to develop a strong communications strategy, and a message that has resonated with Americans and has helped to increase this country's level of preparedness. The Ad Council has also helped the Campaign work with state and local governments to take the national public service advertisements and add their local logo and tag with their local contact information as well as help to secure these public service ads in unpaid advertising space. This service has become important for the Campaign as it helps to ensure a consistent message to Americans about emergency preparedness while allowing state and local governments to be a part of a national media campaign. The Ad Council is the only organization that can meet the Ready Campaign's requirement because: a) They have an established and proven distribution structure/network to reach media outlets and public service directors nationwide. XXXXXXXXXX b) They have a system/structure in place that allows the Campaign to include state and local partners at no cost. XXXXXXXXXX c) The Ad Council has also structured its business model to provide as a service the unique ability to tap top expertise talent in the advertising, marketing, media, and communication industries in a pro bono capacity to help create and develop public services messages and advertisements for their clients. XXXXXXXXXX d) The Campaign has produced more than 40 public service advertisements through the Ad Council that are owned by DHS but contain the Ad Council's logo. XXXXXXXXXX e) The Campaign has worked with the Ad Council to develop dozens of brochures and collateral material for the public. XXXXXXXXXX In conclusion, the Ready Campaign requires an organization that can not only create and produce PSAs but most importantly have a strong, sound structure that will allow for the largest reach possible among media outlets and public service directors. This is so critical because it will determine how successful the campaign will be in getting the attention of the media and ultimately reach the American people. The Ad Council is the only organization who can provide this service to the Ready Campaign. Further, they are able to bring a level of expertise to this campaign that gives us more credibility with the media, government leaders as well as the public on this issue. It is important to note that if the Campaign is forced to contract with another organization there will be large additional costs associated with the transition. Furthermore, the services provided on a pro bono basis for the Ad Council would have to be acquired and additional costs incurred with another vendor. (6) Additional supporting facts for the acquisition: Technical data packages, statements of work or purchase descriptions suitable to maximize competition to the maximum extent practicable are not available. No matter how the requirement is worded, the Ad Council is still the only known source capable of providing public service announcements at the level of exposure required. In addition, the Ad Council is a not for profit organization which receives expert-level pro bono services. No other vendor commands the same reputation level in the industry nor are they capable of competing with the costs. (7) Removal of Barriers: Not applicable. (8) The following sources expressed interest, in writing, in the acquisition. The Ready Campaign solicited a Request For Information through Federal Biz Opps on/around May 30, 2008. The Campaign received three capability statements and one email as a result. Only three organizations submitted information describing the services they could provide but none of them met the full requirements the campaign needs and currently receives from the Ad Council. One of the greatest needs of this campaign is: • A proven network system to distribute, place, and track/monitor Ready's public service advertisements - and the ability to garner a large amount of support from the media organizations to get these ads placed in media's designated donated space.  None of the three organizations demonstrated the distribution structure that the Ad Council has in place. The Ad Council can reach over XX,000 media outlets on a given day to distribute PSAs. This includes radio, television, print, out of home and internet. They package both hard kits for mailings as well as digital packages for distribution that go directly to PSA directors nationwide. Further, they have XXXX regional media directors who are spread nationwide who focus on outreach to every single media market in this country and who build relationships on the ground. Therefore, by having this structure in place, they are able to keep their campaigns in the forefront of media directors so their campaign's PSAs are running frequently and consistently. To date, Ready has received over $756 million worth of unpaid advertising which has helped the campaign reach its overall goal of increasing awareness among Americans for personal preparedness.  For example, XXXX cites a campaign in which they reached X,000 public service directors by contrast the Ad Council typically reaches XX,000 on behalf of Ready. Further, as a result of not having the structure in place for distribution, XXXX does not have the ability to get PSAs placed consistently or frequently in unpaid space. For example, they cite on a different campaign the success of securing $XX million in unpaid advertising since 1999 as a result of building partnerships with foundations, states, tribal organizations, Federal agencies and online organizations to get the placement of these PSAs out there. Again, this does not come close to meeting the requirement of the Ready Campaign to have a partner who has the capability to not only distribute the PSAs but also garner unpaid advertising space. The Ad Council has already garnered more than $703 million worth of unpaid advertising for Ready since 2003.  XXXX indicated in their capability statement that they would hire a subcontracting firm called XXXX to distribute and place Ready's PSAs in unpaid advertising space. However, in their case studies they never mentioned XXXX or how they have utilized them in the past for this work and any results they achieved. Therefore, it is unclear if this firm has the capacity or structure to distribute PSAs at a level consistent with the campaign's needs. Additionally, this would cost the campaign time and money as a subcontract would have to be put in place as well as a structure to fit our needs. This would take several months to do, costing the campaign time in outreach and the public's chance to hear our message.  XXXX never mentioned their ability to distribute PSAs or to secure unpaid advertising space. Instead, they cite a satellite media tour that they conducted with a client as their example of established distribution channel - this is VERY different than distributing PSAs to media outlets nationwide. A satellite media tour is offering a spokesperson to paid media organizations to appear on their news programs. Ready needs a firm that has an established structure to work with PSA Directors nationwide and media organizations to place our PSAs in public service/donated media space. • Ability to work with state and local governments to localize the Ready Campaign in their state/community and have a network in place to help secure donated media space.  None of the three firms met the requirement of working with state and local partners to localize the PSAs. In order to meet this need, it requires a strong distribution structure as well as a strong network as it allows our state and local partners the ability to work with a local representative to localize our PSAs. Again, the Ad Council has XXXX media directors around the country who are working on the ground with every media market - this allows an opportunity for our state and local partners to be a part of our national campaign and tap into the established network of the Ad Council in promoting our message. State and local partners will work with the media director on the ground to reproduce our PSAs with their logo included on the tag - those media directors then work within their media market to help secure unpaid advertising space. None of the three firms could offer this kind of service due to the lack of distribution system as well as the on-the-ground assistance. Further, none of the three firms even demonstrated this level of support but instead talked about creating toolkits etc. This is deliverable to the campaign as it gives us an even broader reach. • Additionally, the Campaign's ability to reach ALL Americans is critical to our success. The XXXX firm is primarily focused on Hispanic media and does not demonstrate their capability to work with the general market media outlets. This is how they describe their agency's philosophy "XXXX. The campaign needs an organization who has established relationships with BOTH Hispanic and general market media. Also, all of the campaigns that they use as examples in their capability statement are focused on Spanish-speaking Americans. Ready is focused on all Americans. • Finally, and most importantly, these three organizations are "for-profit" companies where the Ad Council is a "non-profit," which means that the most critical services needed (described above) for the Campaign are currently being provided by limited or no cost through the Ad Council. If the Campaign were to contract with any of these organizations, it is very clear from their capability statements that the Campaign would incur larger costs because many of these services are things that these organizations would either have to subcontract out or would charge a larger fee for. XXXXXXXXXX Part II 1. In May 2009, additional market research was conducted in accordance with FAR Part 10 to determine potential sources, and included querying the Government wide database of contracts and other procurement instruments intended for use by multiple agencies available at XXXX and also included querying the XXXX database for potential small business sources. The XXXX database was queried based on the NAICS code for this requirement - 541810 Advertising Agencies. The query was also broadened to include related NAICS codes - 541820 Public Relations Agencies and 541830 Media Buying Agencies. The contracts listed on the reports were either not available for use by another agency and/or the remaining ceiling left on the vehicles were insufficient. Furthermore, the scope of work cited in the Description of Requirement fields are not similar to this requirement. For example, XXXX contract awarded to "XXXX" was for local newspaper publications. This requirement encompasses a much larger audience/scope. The XXXX awarded a contract to XXXX for recruitment advertising, which is not similar to this requirement. Another example includes a XXXX contract awarded to XXXX. for public affairs support and video production. The XXXX website was also queried for contracts awarded to the Ad Council. Only one current result was produced. The action was awarded by XXXX on a non-competitive basis, and is not available to FEMA for use. The query for Ad Council was further expanded to include actions awarded to the vendor within the last five years. Those actions were randomly sampled to determine whether or not they were competitively awarded. The actions sampled were not competed and most were similar to this requirement. The XXXX database was queried based on NAICS code 521810 Advertising Agencies for potential small business sources. The query produced over XXXX small businesses. The capability narratives were randomly reviewed to determine whether or not a small business could potentially satisfy this requirement. Some of the businesses on the list clearly did not meet the program's needs. For example, XXXX is a construction firm, not an advertising agency. Most of the capability narratives on the list were for specialized services for certain niches of work. For example, XXXX specializes in photography, video, and film production. XXXX specializes in using puppets for stage shows, television, commercials, etc. XXXX focus is on reaching bilingual/Spanish speaking professionals in search of employment. XXXX produces banners. Based on the market research conducted, it is evident that a small business cannot fulfill the full scope of this requirement. DHS Form 700-22 Small Business Review Form will be completed for the contract file prior to solicitation to get concurrence from the SBA Procurement Center Representative. Potential sources had an opportunity to respond to the Government's intent to sole source notice, which was synopsized on FedBizOpps on May 22, 2009. Interested parties had forty-five days to submit a capability statement. The notice closed at 1:00 PM Eastern Time on July 6, 2009. No capability statements were received. XXXXXXXXXX
Web Link: FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DHS/FEMA/ORPD/HSFEHQ09R0072/listing.html)
Place of Performance: Address: 1203 19th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20036, United States; Zip Code: 20036
Record: SN01908642-W 20090814/090813000217-d51bcf6629440aa69fd308c3db785cfe (fbodaily.com)
Source: FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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