Marketing Services

Trade Agreement: Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) Tendering Procedures: The bidder must supply Canadian goods and/or services Competitive Procurement Strategy: N/A - P&A/LOI Only Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No Nature of Requirements:

Marketing Services

EN578-190375/B Leblanc(CX Div.), Marc-Andre Telephone No. - (613) 949-1285 ( ) Fax No. - (613) 991-5870

TITLE: MARKETING SERVICES

1. PURPOSE AND NATURE OF THE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

The Communications Procurement Directorate (CPD), part of the Commercial and Alternative Acquisitions Management Sector (CAAMS) of Acquisition Branch at Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is requesting Industry feedback regarding the implementation of Supply Arrangements for Marketing Services.

There are currently no procurement tools in place for Marketing Services. In order to fill this gap for these services, PSPC is planning to issue a Request for Supply Arrangement (RFSA).

By using a list of specific questions (see Section 7 of the RFI), the objectives of this RFI are to:

• Modernize procurement practices so that they are simpler, less administratively burdensome, deploy modern comptrollership, and include practices that support our economic policy goals, including green and social procurement; • Solicit industry knowledge and expertise with regard to best practices that would increase the likelihood of a successful outcome for this project; • Determine if industry is capable of e-procurement and e-bidding; and, • Gather information to assist in the development of a Request for Supply Arrangement.

NATURE OF REQUEST FOR INDUSTRY COMMENTS

This RFI is neither a call for tender nor a Request for Proposal (RFP). No agreement or contract will be entered into based on this RFI. The issuance of this RFI is not to be considered in any way a commitment by the Government of Canada, nor as authority to potential respondents to undertake any work that could be charged to Canada. This RFI is not to be considered as a commitment to issue a subsequent solicitation or award contract(s) for the work described herein.

NATURE AND FORMAT OF RESPONSES REQUESTED

Respondents are encouraged to identify, in the information they share with Canada, any information that they feel is proprietary, third party or personal information. Please note that Canada may be obligated by law (e.g. in response to a request under the Access of Information and Privacy Act) to consider disclosing proprietary or commercially-sensitive information provided by respondent (for more information: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/a-1/).

Participation in this RFI is encouraged, but is not mandatory. There will be no supplier list created as a result of this RFI. Similarly, participation in this RFI is not required for the participation in any potential subsequent solicitation.

The RFI closing date is by 2:00 pm Eastern Daylight Savings time on June 28, 2018. Information received before that date will be reviewed and considered when developing the Request for Supply Arrangement.

RESPONSE COSTS

Respondents will not be reimbursed for any cost incurred by participating in this RFI. 2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Through this Request for Information (RFI), the Government of Canada (GoC) is seeking feedback on the possible establishment of Supply Arrangements for Marketing Services. In the GoC context, Marketing Services consist of the development of a marketing strategy aiming to enable the promotion of goods and services to a targeted audience to achieve a greater level of awareness or to get the audience to take action to achieve a goal or mission. The GoC requires the provision of a full range of marketing services on an ?as and when requested basis?. In any resulting Supply Arrangement the Suppliers will be required to adhere to federal policies, guidelines, programs and practices on communications and publishing as referenced in the Treasury Board Policy on Communications and Federal Identity. Marketing Services will include the following:

• Programs, services and benefits marketing: to better inform and engage the audience, to help drive results in uptake and impact; • Social marketing: to effect change in attitudes and behaviours; • Engagement marketing: to promote engagements, consultations, events, etc.; • Experiential marketing: to market a product or a service through experiences that directly engage the audience; and • Recruitment marketing: to find, attract and engage job seekers.

A resulting RFSA for Marketing Services would exclude the following

• Paid advertising services, defined as: any message conveyed in Canada or abroad and paid for by the government for placement in media; • Public opinion research, defined as: systematic collection, by or for the GoC, of opinion-based information of any target audience using quantitative or qualitative methods and techniques; • Video production services; and • Professional services.

An amendment to this RFI containing the draft Statement of Work (SOW) for industry feedback may be included at a later date.

Should an RFSA be published and Supply Arrangements (SAs) be issued, PSPC anticipates that the SAs would be valid for an initial period of two (2) years commencing from the date of SA issuance with an irrevocable option on the part of Canada to extend the period of any resulting SA by a yet to-be-determined number of additional two (2) year periods. Additionally, the RFSA could be ?refreshed? every two (2) years to allow the submission of bids and issuance of SAs to additional suppliers who did not submit or that did not qualify during the initial RFSA period.

Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.