After months of nail-biting and passed tentative deadlines, marketing firms competing for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery advertising contract got an answer on May 19: Incumbent agency CJRW will be keeping the business.
According to an “Anticipation to Award” document posted by state procurement officials, the Lottery will offer the five-year contract to “Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods” of Little Rock.
Bids in response to the state’s request for proposals were opened Feb. 17, and according to a tentative timeline from the Office of State Procurement, final discussions with potential vendors were set for March 24. But the predicted date for the anticipation to award came and went on March 27.
Speculation and conspiracy theories coursed through the Arkansas advertising industry, but Statewide Procurement Specialist Jessica B. Lowder said the dates listed in the solicitation were merely “estimated dates.”
When the announcement was posted last month, it went up with a score sheet on the arbuy.arkansas.gov website. That sheet revealed that CJRW offered the lowest-cost bid of $33.6 million, compared with $33.9 million by 4Media Group of Bentonville, $35.1 million by Agency GWL of Little Rock, $35.2 million by MHP/Team SI of Little Rock, and $36.7 million by Cranford Co. of Little Rock.
Each agency also received a weighted technical proposal score from Lottery officials judging their presentations. CJRW also led in that category at 665, followed by runner-up MHP/Team SI at 641. CJRW’s “grand total score” was 965; MHP/Team SI’s was 927.79.
Most details of the proposals by CJRW and its competitors were redacted from paperwork as proprietary, but the official price sheet posted with the other procurement documents put the average cost per year for ad placement at $5.3 million. The firm’s commission percentage was redacted, but under the $34.5 million 2017 Lottery ad contract, CJRW’s commission on ad placement was 13%.
The current CJRW proposal lists a production commission, or “agency upcharge for production invoices,” of $780,000 per year on average.
Sign up for Daily E-news
