CONTRACT NOTICE – NATIONAL

1 Authority Details

1.1

Authority Name and Address

1.2

Address from which documentation may be obtained

1.3

Completed documents must be returned to:

2 Contract Details

2.1

Title

Digital Marketing

2.2

Description of the goods or services required

Career Choices Dewis Gyrfa Ltd (CCDG) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Welsh Government trading as Gyrfa Cymru Careers Wales, we are contracted to provide the all age, independent and impartial careers information, advice and guidance service for Wales.

We support the Welsh Government’s strategic objectives as identified in the Programme for Government and related Welsh Government policies, such as the Working Wales and the Youth Engagement and Progression Framework (YEPF). We help people understand the changing jobs market and to acquire new skills to take full advantage of the opportunities open to them. We provide access to high quality information and online resources to enable people to make informed and confident decisions. Our work helps to develop the nation’s skills base and to support the effectiveness of expenditure on education and training, thereby contributing to the economic and social well-being of Wales.

Our vision is for a Wales where individuals are inspired to take control of their careers and our mission is to ensure customers achieve their potential. Our services are delivered via Wales-wide career centres, school and college-based careers advisers, digital services, website, webchat and phone line. We also work in shared facilities such as libraries, job centre plus and in prisons.

In May 2019 we began delivering the Welsh Government’s Prosperity for All: Employability Plan. This is a five year contract that sees Careers Wales deliver the Working Wales programme, which is the gateway for tailored employability support in Wales for those 16 years +.

There is a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy in place, which covers both our main core work to support young people and employer relations as well for our Working Wales customers. Digital marketing is one of the elements of the marketing mix that we use to reach, engage and inform our customers about our services as well as encourage take-up of services.

NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=103048.

The buyer has indicated that it will accept electronic responses to this notice via the Postbox facility. A user guide is available at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/sitehelp/help_guides.aspx.

Suppliers are advised to allow adequate time for uploading documents and to dispatch the electronic response well in advance of the closing time to avoid any last minute problems.

2.3

Notice Coding and Classification

2.4

Total quantity or scope of tender

The requirement is to recruit a specialist digital marketing agency to help us reach and engage our varied target audience across all services, as part of our wider marketing and communications activities and to undertake SEO services..

The contract value over two years is between £0 and £165,000. This is to include both advertising spend as well as agency fees for campaigns and separate SEO work.. We will produce a statement of works for each campaign and raise one purchase order per campaign which will cover both agency fees and advertising spend.

We are looking for the experts in the field who can help deliver on our digital marketing objectives across all of our services.

A digital project could typically consist of a full digital campaign to target specific groups of people, raise the profile of specific services, brand awareness, or be part of a wider campaign which will run alongside other activities we will manage in-house, e.g. PR, organic social media content. There may also be occasion to run small/specific paid for advertising on a particular platform which may not be part of a wider campaign.

We provide an all age, impartial service and we can broadly breakdown our services into three main areas, where digital marketing support will be required:

Our services to young people:

This is the careers advice and guidance we provide to young people in schools and sixth from/further education colleges throughout the year and at key stages of their decision making, e.g. year nine options, applying to university, starting college etc. We also have a range of smaller projects throughout the year aimed at young people, e.g. summer programmes, distance learning resources etc.

Our work with employers:

We have various programmes in place to bring together employers and schools with the aim of supporting young people to learn more about the world of work. This includes careers fairs, employer engagement activities such as mock interviews, digital presentations and site visits. We have several high-profile events linked to this area of work including our annual Valued Partner Awards.

Working Wales:

Our Working Wales service provides support to anyone over the age of 16 and not in compulsory education. There is a transition from our support in schools into this service where required. Working Wales supports its customers with various services broadly linked to finding a job, work-based learning opportunities, training/upskilling and with redundancy support. Careers Wales has a target by Welsh Government of engaging with 50,000 individuals per annum.

Our services for young people and employer engagement content sits on our main Careers Wales website. A campaign micro-site exist for our Working Wales service

We are also in the process of expanding our remit into providing resources for primary schools from September 2020 onwards. During Covid-19 other areas of our service have expanded at the request of Welsh Government, e.g. furlough support, enhanced support to year 13s.

Call to actions would predominantly be the respective websites, to telephone, live chat, messenger or other activity such as e-forms, event registration.

We have outlined below our requirements for the delivery of the digital marketing activity we would require and we are looking for an organisation that can deliver this and provide ongoing advice on the development of our website content (from an SEO perspective) and digital marketing activity as below.

Digital marketing activity to include:

• SEO auditing, recommendations and support

• Market place/keyword analysis

• Search advertising

• Targeted/programmatic advertising – by demographic, audience etc across a range of platforms

• Display advertising

• Google ads

• PPC, CPC

• Lead generation ads

• Remarketing

Please note all adverts/content would be required in both English and Welsh.

You would be required to respond to a brief and suggest relevant platforms and digital activity to reach the intended audiences.

In response to each brief, we would expect to see the proposal include:

• Aims

• Strategy and tactics (including advert type/media type)

• Budget allocation per media spend and overall agency fee

• Results/metric type

• Suggested KPIs/targets/outcomes

We require you to manage the whole process of securing, booking and placing the adverts in the agreed proposal. In line with the specification and support provided by yourself for the campaign, we would provide the messaging and supporting graphical assets.

We require access to regular reporting from you during a campaign, with any recommendations included at each reporting stage and to receive a final report at the end of every campaign.

3 Conditions for Participation

3.1

Minimum standards and qualification required

Section 1: Pricing 40%

For the purposes of evaluating price, we are seeking a flat rate management fee based on a percentage of the advertising spend set for each campaign.

Pricing Example

In September we will be expanding the opening hours of our digital services. Currently our telephone, web chat and Facebook messenger services are manned by our Connect team during the following hours: 9.00am - 5.00pm Mon – Thurs and 9.00am- 4.30pm Friday

From September these channels will all be available from 8am to 9pm every weekday.

We are expanding this service to support the expected demand on both our core and Working Wales services as a result of the impact of the pandemic.

From our core perspective we need to ensure young people 16-18 (and their parents) who have decided to stay in education are aware of our support and guidance and ways to get in touch to help mitigate against an expected increase in the number of NEETS.

From our Working Wales service its predominantly focusing on the redundancy support we can offer anyone 16yrs+ who have been made unemployed during/as a result of the pandemic.

Advertising budget: £30K

Based on the above please provide the cost of your management fee for running the campaign – based on the provision of the following services which will be consistent across all our planned projects

• Provision of a proposal based on the advertising need (to include all elements on page three)

• Managing the whole process of securing, booking and placing the adverts in the agreed proposal. Providing advice to Careers Wales on the advertising specification and messaging required with the content and supporting graphical assets to be provided by Careers Wales.

• Provision of regular reporting throughout the campaign, with any recommendations included at each reporting stage and

• a final report at the end of every campaign.

The management fee will then be calculated as percentage of the 30k advertising spend.

Please note that for all future campaign work the management fee will be fixed as per the percentage above.

We would agree a separate costing for SEO work which falls outside of this cap.

Section 2: Quality 60%

There is no requirement to add any additional information other than the answers to the section headers below.

1. Relevant experience of working on similar projects – 30%

Please provide three examples of where you have worked on similar projects – indicating how you can successfully market our services to the correct customer groups (10% per project). Max 250 words per project.

2. Your Personnel – 20%

Details of the number of people and the experience of the relevant personnel who will be working on this account. Please include evidence showing prior experience in this field. Max 500 words.

3. Environment – 5%

Please provide details of any environmental certificates that you hold and also a brief description of how you:

• reduce waste to landfill;

• recycle materials;

• reduce water consumption;

• manage business mileage.

We only require a response relating to the 4 areas identified above. Max 100 words per descriptor.

4. Ethical Employment 5%

CCDG has adopted the Welsh Government‘s code of practice on ethical procurement in supply chains and in order to ensure high standards of service quality in this contract we expect contractors to take a similar approach in relation to ethical working practices. Please describe how you will commit to fair working practices for workers engaged in the delivery of this contract (including any agency or sub contracted workers) maximum 200 words.

We would like to bring to the attention of our perspective suppliers guidance on the code of ethical supply chains as published by the Welsh Government.

https://gov.wales/topics/improvingservices/bettervfm/code-of-practice/?lang=en

Adopting the code voluntarily is not a requirement of this tender.

Scoring

The contract will be awarded based on the following scoring methodology:

Section A: Price 40%

The lowest price submitted will be awarded a score of 40, with tenderers thereafter being allocated a relative score which will be based on the percentage difference between their costs and the lowest costed proposal

For example lowest management fee is £4000, the next lowest is £5000 . The lowest price would score 40 marks the second lowest price would score 40 – (1000/4000* 40) -10 = score of 30.

This score will be combined with the quality score to give an overall score for each tenderer.

Section B: Quality 60%

The following marks are allocated to each section:

• Experience 30%

• Personnel 20%

• Environment 5%

• Ethical employment 5%

The scoring methodology

1. Very Good or Fully Compliant Submission -which meets all requirements and is fully explained in comprehensive detail – between 90 to 100% of the marks available

2. Good or Fully Compliant Submission -which meets all the requirements and is explained in reasonable detail between 70% and 89% of the marks available

3. Satisfactory or Compliant Submission -which meets the essential requirements and is explained in adequate detail 50% to 69% of the marks available

4. Weak or Partially Compliant (Minor issues) Submission where some areas fall short of requirements and is poorly explained 30% to 49% of the marks available

5. Unacceptable or Non Compliant (Major issues) Submission which fails to meet requirements and is not explained 10% to 29% of the marks available

The tender will be awarded to the company achieving the highest score out of a maximum 100%.

4 Administrative Information

4.1

Type of Procedure

Single stage

4.2

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

N/a

4.3

Time Limits

4.5

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

4.6

Tender Submission Postbox

5 Other Information

5.1

Additional Information

Timescale

Indicative timescale for the key stages of the tender process. These dates are subject to change:

• Issue of Invitations to Tender – 21 July

• Receipt of tenders – Thursday 6 August

• Panel Meeting to be take place Thursday 20 August

• Notification of Agreement award –Monday 24 August

• Commencement – First Initial Meeting Thursday 3 September

Submission Details

The tenders shall be submitted in electronic format on www.sell2wales.com by 5pm on 6/8/2020. Tenders received after the due date and time may not be considered.

Tendering Terms

CCDG reserves the right to reject or disqualify a Tenderer where:

the tender is submitted late, is completed incorrectly, is incomplete or fails to meet the CCDG's submission requirements.

the Tenderer is guilty of serious misrepresentation in relation to its application and / or the process; and / or

the Tenderer contravenes any of the terms and conditions of this tender; and/or

there is a change in identity (including where applicable the make up of consortia), control, financial standing or other factor impacting on the evaluation process affecting the Tenderer; and/or

The disqualification of a Tenderer will not prejudice any other civil remedies available to CCDG and will not prejudice any criminal liabilities that such conduct by a Tenderer may attract.

CCDG further reserves the right to:

cancel the tender process at any stage for any reason;

require a Tenderer to clarify their submission in writing or by means of a clarification meeting and / or provide additional information. (Failure to respond adequately may result in the disqualification of a Tenderer);

amend the terms and conditions of the tender process; and/or

award only part of the contract.

CCDG reserves the right to withdraw from the tendering process at any stage or to vary the scope of the Products required and CCDG shall not be liable to any Tenderer as a result of this action. In the event that the tender process is cancelled no part of the tender submitted shall be returned to the Tenderer. It should be noted that. CCDG will not be liable for or pay expenses or losses whatsoever which

may be incurred by any tenderer in the preparation of a submission.

Tenderers acknowledge and agree by their submission that their tender remains open for acceptance by CCDG for six months from the closing date for receipt of tenders.

Communication

All contact must be made through Sell to Wales who will facilitate appropriate contact with other relevant persons.

Tenderers must not in any way canvass or solicit information from any other employee of CCDG or its agents and / or advisers.

Clarification

Should any Tenderer wish to raise any questions or obtain any further information not contained in the tender or not otherwise publicly available all questions / requests must be submitted to www.sell2wales.com by 27/7/2020.

If a question or request for clarification or further information is not made by the date referred to above, CCDG reserves the right not to respond but may, at its own discretion, endeavour to respond to the Tenderer and provide the Tenderer with any additional information to which CCDG has access, but CCDG shall not be obliged to comply with any such request and does not accept any liability or responsibility for failure to provide any such information.

CCDG will endeavour to respond to queries within seven working days and will advise Tenderers if a longer response time is required due to the nature of the query.

Tenderers are encouraged to identify issues on which they would like clarification as early as possible in the tendering process and must raise a clarification if any aspect of this tender is not clear to the Tenderer.

Right to Amend

CCDG reserves the right to issue supplementary documentation at any time during the process in order to clarify any issue or amend any aspect of the tender. All such further documentation issued by CCDG during the tendering process shall be deemed to form part of the tender and shall supersede any part of the tender to the extent indicated. CCDG may exercise the option to extend the tender period and postpone the tender return date, in the event that subsequent documentation is issued or for any other reason.

Confidentiality

CCDG and its advisors will keep confidential the tenders and any other information supplied by Tenderers during the tendering process and will use best endeavours to prevent any disclosures by their officers and employees.

Tenderers must be aware that at key stages in the project CCDG may be obliged to disclose detailed information relating to Tenders to relevant monitoring authorities and to make the key project documents available for private inspection by such authorities.

Whilst CCDG will be reasonable as regards the protection of commercially sensitive information, it can only do so in the light of the latest published guidance on this area.

Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Statement

CCDG is subject to The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“Act”) and The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“EIR”).

As part of CCDG’s duties under the Act or EIR, it may be required to disclose information concerning the procurement process or the Contract to anyone who makes a request.

If the Tenderer considers that any of the information provided in their tender is commercially sensitive (meaning it could reasonably cause prejudice to the Tenderer if disclosed to a third party) then it should be clearly marked as "Not for disclosure to third parties” together with valid reasons in support of the information as being exempt from disclosure under the Act and the EIR.

CCDG will endeavour to consult with the Tenderer and have regard to comments and any objections before it releases any information to a third party under the Act or the EIR. However CCDG shall be entitled to determine in its absolute discretion whether any information is exempt from the Act and/or the EIR, or is to be disclosed in response to a request of information. CCDG must make its decision on disclosure in accordance with the provisions of the Act or the EIR and can only withhold information if it is covered by an exemption from disclosure under the Act or the EIR.

Canvassing and non-collusion

Except as specifically authorised by CCDG, Tenderers shall not approach any other Tenderer or member of CCDG’s staff with a view to seeking information in respect of any part of their submission or proposals or attempting to support or enhance their prospects of their tender being selected.

.

Publicity

No publicity regarding the project or the award of the contract will be permitted unless and until CCDG have given express written consent to the relevant communication. In particular, no statements should be made to the press or other similar organisations regarding the nature of any tender, its contents or any proposals relating thereto without prior written consent.

Costs

All Tenderers are solely responsible for their costs and expenses incurred in connection with the preparation and submission of their tender and the tendering process. Under no circumstances will CCDG, or any of its advisers, be liable for any costs or expenses borne by the Tenderer or any of its consortium members, subcontractors or advisers in this process or for any economic loss or other loss of profit incurred by any Tenderer in relation to the project.

Welsh Language

CCDG is committed to promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language, and to not treat the Welsh language less favourably than English in line with the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011. The successful Bidder should be aware of the provisions of the Measure and ensure that in implementing the contract the Welsh language is promoted and facilitated and not treated less favourably than English.

Compliance with Legislation

Tenderers are deemed to understand fully the processes that CCDG is required to follow under relevant European and UK legislation, particularly in relation to The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (as amended).

Compliance with all relevant legislation is required both in the contract award procedure and during the term of any resultant contract

Jurisdiction and governing laws

All aspects of the tendering process shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales as applied in Wales and each Tenderer submits to the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.

Disclaimer

None of CCDG, its advisors, or directors, officers, members, partners, employees, other staff, agents or advisers of any such person:

makes any representation or warranty (express or implied) as to the accuracy, reasonableness or completeness of the information in the tender. Any persons considering making a decision to enter into contractual relationships with CCDG following receipt of the tender should make their own investigations and their own independent assessment of CCDG and its requirement for the Products and should seek their own professional financial and legal advice; or

accepts any responsibility for the information in the tender or for its fairness, accuracy or completeness, nor shall any of them be liable for any loss or damage (other than in respect of fraudulent misrepresentation) arising as a result of reliance on such information or any subsequent communication. Only the express terms of any written contract relating to the subject matter of this tender as and when it is executed shall have any contractual effect in connection with the matters to which it relates. Any such contract will be governed by English and Welsh law.

Nothing in the tender or other contract documents is or should be relied upon as a promise or representation as to CCDG's ultimate decisions in relation to this project.

No oral acceptance by CCDG of any offer or outline submissions within an offer shall be valid or binding on CCDG.

In order to further ensure a fair and competitive process, CCDG requires that all actual or potential conflicts of interest are disclosed, identified and resolved to CCDG ’s satisfaction prior to the submission of Tenders or immediately notified to CCDG in the event that any actual or potential conflict of interest comes to the Tenderer’s attention following the submission of a Tender.

In such circumstances CCDG may require further information from Tenderers but reserve the right to disqualify a Tenderer from further involvement.

CCDG reserves the right to exclude Tenderers from the procurement process should actual or potential conflicts of interest be found by CCDG to confer an unfair competitive advantage on one or more Tenderers or to otherwise undermine a fair and competitive procurement process and, following consultation with the Tenderer, such actual or potential conflicts are not resolved to the satisfaction of CCDG.

(WA Ref:103048)

5.2

Additional Documentation

5.3

Publication date of this notice