Contract award notice
Results of the procurement procedure
Section I: Contracting
entity
I.1) Name and addresses
University of Southampton
University Road
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
UK
Contact person: Alice Mashford
Telephone: +44 2380595000
E-mail: Procurement@soton.ac.uk
NUTS: UKJ32
Internet address(es)
Main address: http://www.southampton.ac.uk
Address of the buyer profile: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofsouthampton
I.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
I.5) Main activity
Education
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
Advertising Services
Reference number: 18.PROF.39 Advertising
II.1.2) Main CPV code
79341000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
The University of Southampton requires an advertising agency to provide advertising services with a new, open and transparent approach for media buying, with the agency providing the best possible outcomes for communication campaigns whilst providing value for money.
The agency shall be capable of delivering value for money, as well as providing excellent customer service including strategic implementational buying advice, and be willing and capable of working in partnership with other agencies and specialists to deliver the media buying aspect of fully integrated campaigns for the University of Southampton to ensure the process from strategy to implementation is successful.
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.1.7) Total value of the procurement
Value excluding VAT:
3 500 000.00
GBP
II.2) Description
II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
79341100
79341200
79341400
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKJ32
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
The University of Southampton commissions advertising to promote the University in the UK and overseas to a range of audiences including undergraduate and postgraduate students, business, partners and other stakeholders. The University will appoint an agency for media advice, planning, buying and reporting.
The University is looking to build on its existing success and needs an agency that will work with it to realise its strategic goals and aspirations. The higher education market is increasingly global and competitive and the University needs to be proactive in meeting the challenges and opportunities that arise as a result.
The contract will be managed by communications and marketing to ensure quality control, brand compliance and adherence to KPIs. The agency is required to ensure that the University gains access to the best opportunities relevant to its markets, deliver value for money and measure results in a proactive fashion that ensures all activity delivers against the University’s KPIs. The University expects the agency to take a ‘right first time’ approach to ensure that opportunity is not lost in the highly competitive and time-sensitive student recruitment cycle.
The University will work in partnership with the appointed agency and will be able to provide appropriate campaign insight such as the profiles of our target audiences, geographic data, learnings from previous campaigns, etc. Brand and reputation is managed corporately and all other campaigns will sit beneath this. Activity relating so student recruitment will have 2 layers – corporate campaigns which advance University-wide objectives, and subject specific campaigns which focus on particular areas of study. Subject specific campaigns will typically have a lower budget than corporate campaigns but the University views these as of equal value to the corporate campaigns and expects the agency to work in a way that reflects this. The University may occasionally require the agency to support activity such as the promotion of its arts offering or recruiting participants for research studies. There may also be a requirement for activity to support commercial enterprise units. All staff recruitment and media and public relations are out of scope of this tender.
This procurement process has been conducted as a restricted procedure; consisting of both selection and invitation to tender stages.
Stage 1: Selection stage: An overall pass mark of 50 % shall apply to this stage. The intention is to arrive at a shortlist of a maximum of 5 qualified potential suppliers for formal invitation to tender. The maximum number of qualified potential suppliers will be based on the top 5 scores achieved. Where more than the maximum number of potential suppliers have achieved a top 5 score (i.e. a tie), all of those potential suppliers will be invited to the invitation to tender stage.
Stage 2: Invitation to tender (ITT) Stage — A maximum of 5 qualified tenderers will be invited to submit formal tenders at this stage.
The University has entered into a contract for 4 years with the successful tenderer.
This comprises of an initial contract period of 2 years with an option to extend by a further 1 year + 1 year subject to satisfactory performance and at the discretion of the University.
The estimated value of the initial 2-year contract term is in the region of 1 750 000 GBP (excluding VAT).
The estimated value of the 1-year extension period is 875 000 GBP (excluding VAT).
It is estimated, therefore, that the total value of this contract will be 3 500 000 GBP (excluding VAT).
II.2.5) Award criteria
Quality criterion: Key personnel: Dedicated account management team
/ Weighting: 5 %
Quality criterion: Consultancy, advice and guidance: added value and benefit
/ Weighting: 7.5 %
Quality criterion: Consultancy, advice and guidance: Strategic approach, best practice and emerging trends
/ Weighting: 7.5 %
Quality criterion: Approach to media planning and buying
/ Weighting: 10 %
Quality criterion: Generation Z target market
/ Weighting: 5 %
Quality criterion: Measurement and benchmarking
/ Weighting: 5 %
Quality criterion: Post Campaign Analysis and added value
/ Weighting: 5 %
Quality criterion: Performance reviews and insight
/ Weighting: 5 %
Quality criterion: Presentation: Mock brief - response to brief
/ Weighting: 5 %
Quality criterion: Presentation: Added value, competitive edge, innovation and strategy
/ Weighting: 5 %
Quality criterion: Exit Management Plan
/ Weighting: 0 %
Cost criterion: Agency fee
/ Weighting: 40 %
Cost criterion: Savings and value add
/ Weighting: 0 %
Cost criterion: Cancellation policy and charges
/ Weighting: 0 %
Cost criterion: Rebates/agency volume bonuses
/ Weighting: 0 %
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
No
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
II.2.14) Additional information
Lots: This contract is not suitable for splitting into lots. The risk of dividing the requirement into lots would render the execution of the contract excessively technically difficult, not cost effective and would undermine proper execution of the contract.
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Restricted procedure
IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
Yes
IV.2) Administrative information
IV.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
Notice number in the OJ S:
2019/S 063-146869
Section V: Award of contract
Contract No: 18.PROF.39
Title: Advertising Services
A contract/lot is awarded:
Yes
V.2 Award of contract
V.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
23/09/2019
V.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 3
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators:
No
V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
VCCP Group LLP trading as VCCP Media
OC370529
PO Box 70693, 62 Buckingham Gate
London
SW1P 9ZP
UK
NUTS: UKI32
The contractor is an SME:
No
V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot:
Total value of the contract/lot:
: 3 500 000.00
GBP
V.2.5) Information about subcontracting
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.3) Additional information
E-Tendering Portal: The University is utilising an electronic tendering tool, In-Tend (https://intendhost.co.uk/ universityofsouthampton) to manage this procurement and to communicate with potential suppliers and/or tenderers (as appropriate).
All documentation in relation to this tender can be downloaded from In-Tend.
Potential suppliers/tenderers are advised that there will be no hard copy documents issued and all communications with the University, including the submission of selection stage and/or invitation to tender responses will be conducted via In-Tend.
Regular monitoring of the portal is the responsibility of the potential supplier/tenderer.
If you are not already registered as a supplier with the University of Southampton, you will need to register in In-Tend in order to access the procurement documentation.
Once you have logged in as a supplier: click on 'Tenders'; locate the relevant project; and click 'View Details'. Once you are in the project screen, you will be able to register your organisation against the project and access all documentation by clicking 'Express Interest'.
Potential suppliers/tenderers are advised that formal expressions of interest in the project must be by way of completion and return of the relevant documents via In-Tend.
Further instructions for the submission of responses are below:
To submit your return:
1) Log in;
2) Click 'Tenders';
3) Locate the relevant project;
4) View details;
5) Click on the tab relating to the relevant project stage (e.g. 'Invitation to Tender');
6) Click on the 'Attach Documents' button and upload your return;
7) Check all your response documents are uploaded and displayed in the 'My Tender Return' panel. The system will only permit your organisation to make one return;
8) Click the red 'Submit Return' button.
Please note, to preserve the integrity of the procurement, all communications with the University must be made via the correspondence function within In-Tend.
Publication of Award Details: In accordance with Regulation 50, paragraph (2) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and subject to Article 5 and Annex 5, Part D (13) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (if applicable), the University intends to publish the value of any resulting contract at the award stage, and reserves the right to do so. By submitting a response, potential suppliers/tenderers are consenting to publication of this information unless otherwise agreed in advance with the University.
Costs and Expenses: Potential suppliers/tenderers are solely responsible for their costs and expenses incurred in connection with the preparation and submission of responses and participation.
In this and all future stages of this procurement. Under no circumstances will the University be liable for any costs or expenses borne by potential suppliers/tenderers or any of their supply chain, partners or advisers in this procurement process.
The University is not liable for any costs in the event of the cancellation of this procurement process.
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
UK
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
17/10/2019