The IPA in Scotland welcomes the opportunity to submit views
on the above.
A About the IPA
The Institute of Practitioners in
Advertising in Scotland is the trade body and professional institute for
Scottish advertising, media and marketing communications agencies.
Our 21 corporate members, who represent
the Scottish agencies within the UK-wide IPA, handle the majority of Scotland's
advertising agency business, of which government and semi-government bodies
form a critically important part.
As such, we are vitally concerned with –
and heartily applaud – any measures which are designed to improve the processes
by which our members can be appointed to this activity.
B How
we have approached this consultation
In addition to completing the specific
questions raised with regard to this consultation (separate document attached),
we have surveyed our membership in Scotland to obtain their views on the
current position vis-à-vis public procurement in Scotland.
Since the majority of these companies are
SMEs, which the Government would like to encourage and see actively involved as
its suppliers, we believe their opinions are important in any future
procurement process which might be adopted with specific reference to marketing
communications.
We have noted below a series of concerns
around current procurement practices which, together, underline the critical
need for reform in this area.
C How
our members currently view public sector procurement
Our responses are broken down into four
sub-sections. Specifically:
1.
Process vs. outcomes
Members
expressed considerable concern that the current procurement process is
ill-suited to the selection of the most appropriate agency to deliver effective
communications to Government. There is a widespread belief that, due to the
mechanistic and quantitative measures assessed, the process is designed to
arrive at the lowest cost, rather than the most effective outcome.
This tendency to commoditise creative
marketing services forces agencies to offer a significantly lower rate to
Government than would be proposed to commercial clients to win initial ITTs,
only to be asked to discount again to win mini-competitions.
Although this might seem, on the surface,
to deliver value for money for the tax-payer, in reality it makes un-commercial
demands on agencies, who find themselves struggling not just to produce
effective work, but in some cases, even to survive.
With no apparent quality/qualitative
checks of tendering agencies’ ability to fulfil contracts, tender submissions
may currently ensure the Government pays the absolute minimum for the work it
receives, but they offer no guarantee of its likely effectiveness.
2.
Understanding marketing services
While
procurement may strive to standardise procedures, buying advertising and
marketing services is very different to buying concrete items or services that
have a more physical outcome.
Creativity thrives on personal contact.
The absence of opportunities to meet prospective clients face-to-face during
the tender/pitch process inhibits understanding and prevents the formation of
personal relationships. While this may be deliberate in order to preserve
impartiality, in reality, it acts against the development of the most effective
creative work.
At a time when commercial companies are
increasing their efforts to ensure the right ‘chemistry’ between themselves and
their marketing services suppliers, it is significant that
government/semi-government bodies rarely, if ever, visit agencies. This leads
to concerns amongst our membership of not only a lack of understanding of
agency business models, but also of sufficient knowledge and experience to
judge the quality and potential effectiveness of the work being produced.
3.
Bureaucratic Process Burdens
ITTs
are universally felt to be over-complex, difficult to complete and frequently
expressed in a language which the world outside procurement finds difficult to
understand.
While our members are held rigidly to
their timetables to submit, it is
pointed out that procurement have in the
past frequently moved their own deadlines two to three times – apparently with
little regard to the suppliers involved.
Moreover, mini-competitions repeatedly
request the same information in slightly different formats, such that agencies
can spend more time on submitting proposals than they do working on the
creative solutions the tenders are designed to deliver.
In addition to this, there is a marked
inconsistency and lack of clarity on the criteria on which projects are or are
not taken to mini-competitions, how these are briefed and subsequently judged.
All the above imposes an enormous burden
on small companies whose expertise lies in developing creative solutions to
address public behaviour, not wading through bureaucratic and, what is seen to
be, inappropriate and unnecessary paperwork.
4.
Unrealistic demands on tiny budgets
While,
superficially, it may seem fair that public tenders are thrown open to the
market-place as a whole, it is frequently the case in Scotland that this
approach is massively wasteful not only in terms of the competing suppliers,
but also of the time required by procurement to judge the resulting
submissions.
The IPA/ISBA/CIPS/MMA Best Practice
Guidelines suggest a maximum of four agencies should be involved in a pitch.
In Scotland, however, it is not uncommon
for up to 20 companies to compete for public service projects of only
£15-£20,000.
This is not an example of the market
working well - enabling Government to select from the widest possible field –
it is a waste of national resources and sets a poor example to the commercial
sector from a body which should be acting responsibly and as an exemplar.
D Our
hopes for the future
It is against this backdrop that we
applaud the Scottish Government's initiative to simplify and render more
user-friendly its procurement activities.
Scotland has always had some of the
finest creative minds in the world, but if these are to be harnessed most
effectively to the nation's good, the processes by which they are employed must
not be bogged down in needless paperwork.
On this basis, we have great hopes for –
and thoroughly endorse – the proposed Reform Bill.
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