Marketing services

Tender description

The University of South Wales (USW) wishes to work in partnership with a marketing agency to: (i) develop strategy and respond to tactical briefs for the recruitment of undergraduate and postgraduate students; (ii) in addition, to positively present the brand across all stakeholder groups i.e., prospective students/enquirers, current students, alumni, businesses, research community, etc.; (iii) to work cooperatively with any other appointed agency supporting USW across brand and campaign activity. There will be 2 lots: 1) Integrated Marketing Campaigns – Brand; 2) Integrated Marketing Campaigns – Digital. The contract will be managed by the University’s marketing and student recruitment department, to ensure quality control, brand compliance and monitoring against KPIs. All staff recruitment and media, and public relations activities are outside the scope of this tender. The University is seeking to award 2 separate 3-year contracts to commence in January 2020, with an option to extend beyond the initial 3-year period for a further period of 12 months (3+1) subject to satisfactory contractor performance. Contractors are able to apply for both: Lot 1: (integrated marketing campaigns – brand); and Lot 2: (integrated marketing campaigns – digital) or individual lots. The University of South Wales (USW) wishes to work in partnership with a marketing agency to: (i) develop strategy and respond to tactical briefs for the recruitment of undergraduate and postgraduate students; (ii) in addition, to positively present the brand across all stakeholder groups i.e., prospective students/enquirers, current students, alumni, businesses, research community, etc.; (iii) to work cooperatively with any other appointed digital agency supporting USW across brand and campaign activity. The appointed agency will have authority over representation of the brand outside of the digital space, in conjunction with the marketing and student recruitment department at USW. The appointed agency will be required to work in partnership with a digital agency to represent the brand as best as possible. USW operates globally and the scope of work will include: — to work as a strategy partner developing, implementing and evaluating market strategy to deliver on student recruitment KPIs, — increase awareness and consideration of USW, — drive enquiries, applications and enrolments for USW courses, — improve the quality of our student intake and increase applications and enrolments, — provide expert advice (based on data) to enhance activities i.e., drive enquirers and applicants through the conversion funnel, — support with positively presenting the USW brand and values across all stakeholder groups i.e., Alumni projects, International recruitment. Work will typically have 2 strands, ‘central’ and ‘course marketing’ – the ‘central’ campaign work i.e., open day advertising, supports ‘course marketing’ activities, therefore marketing plans and activities should be integrated into one plan and both strands treated equally important by the agency. All staff recruitment and media, and public relations activities are outside the scope of this tender. The University's main competitors are Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan, Swansea University, Trinity St David’s, University of Gloucestershire and University of West of England (‘Main Competitors’) Potential candidates that currently, or intend to (for example, under an existing framework), deliver integrated marketing campaigns (brand and/or digital) services to one or more of the Main Competitors will need to demonstrate at Stage 1 how they will effectively manage any conflict of interest. Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the selection criteria — please note Section III.1) (conditions for participation) of this OJEU Notice. This procurement process is being conducted as a restricted procedure consisting of both selection and invitation to tender stages. Stage 1: Selection Stage: an overall pass mark of 75 % shall apply to this stage. Candidates should note Section III.1) (conditions for participation) of this OJEU Notice for information on the selection criteria. The scores awarded by the evaluation panel will be collated and a shortlist of candidates will be produced. The highest scoring eight (8) candidates will be short-listed. However, the University reserves the right to invite less than eight (8) candidates where an insufficient number of candidates satisfy the University's minimum requirements as set out in Section 1 (information and instructions) of this document. Further, the University reserves the right to invite more than eight (8) where more than one candidate is ranked joint eighth highest scoring candidate. Stage 2: Invitation to Tender Stage: a maximum of 8 qualified potential suppliers will be invited to submit formal tenders at this stage. The University is seeking to award 2 separate 3-year contracts to commence in January 2020, with an option to extend beyond the initial 3-year period for a further period of 12 months (3+1) subject to satisfactory contractor performance. Contractors are able to apply for both: Lot 1: (integrated marketing campaigns – brand); and Lot 2: (integrated marketing campaigns – digital) or individual lots. The University of South Wales (USW) wishes to work in partnership with a marketing agency to: (i) develop strategy and respond to tactical briefs for the recruitment of undergraduate and postgraduate students; (ii) in addition, to positively present the brand across all stakeholder groups i.e., prospective students/enquirers, current students, alumni, businesses, research community, etc; (iii) to work cooperatively with any other appointed brand agency supporting USW across brand and campaign activity. The appointed agency will have authority over representation of the brand outside of the digital space, in conjunction with the marketing and student recruitment department at USW. The appointed agency will be required to work in partnership with the brand agency to represent the digital as best as possible. USW operates globally and the scope of work will include: — to work as a strategy partner developing, implementing and evaluating market strategy to deliver on student recruitment KPIs, — increase awareness and consideration of USW, — drive enquiries, applications and enrolments for USW courses, — improve the quality of our student intake and increase applications and enrolments, — provide expert advice (based on data) to enhance activities i.e., drive enquirers and applicants through the conversion funnel, — support with positively presenting the USW brand and values across all stakeholder groups i.e., alumni projects, International recruitment. Work will typically have 2 strands, ‘central’ and ‘faculty’ – the ‘central’ campaign work i.e., supports the ‘faculty’ activities, therefore marketing plans and activities should be integrated into one plan and both strands treated equally important by the agency. All staff recruitment and media, and public relations activities are outside the scope of this tender. The University's main competitors are Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan, Swansea University, Trinity St David’s, University of Gloucestershire and University of West of England (‘Main Competitors’) potential candidates that currently, or intend to (for example, under an existing framework), deliver integrated marketing campaigns (brand and/or digital) services to one or more of the main competitors will need to demonstrate at Stage 1 how they will effectively manage any conflict of interest. Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the selection criteria — please note Section III.1) (conditions for participation) of this OJEU Notice. This procurement process is being conducted as a restricted procedure consisting of both selection and invitation to tender stages. Stage 1: Selection Stage: an overall pass mark of 75 % shall apply to this stage. Candidates should note Section III.1) (Conditions for Participation) of this OJEU Notice for information on the selection criteria. The scores awarded by the evaluation panel will be collated and a shortlist of Candidates will be produced. The highest scoring eight (8) Candidates will be short-listed. However, the University reserves the right to invite less than eight (8) Candidates where an insufficient number of Candidates satisfy the University's minimum requirements as set out in Section 1 (Information and Instructions) of this document. Further, the University reserves the right to invite more than eight (8) where more than one candidate is ranked joint eighth highest scoring candidate. Stage 2: Invitation to Tender stage: a maximum of 8 qualified potential suppliers will be invited to submit formal tenders at this stage.