Develop a RFP Package

Develop a Scope of Work

Before recruiting and hiring a creative agency, your team must decide what skills, experiences and characteristics you expect the agency to have and what you would like them to do – this is your Scope of Work (SOW). Defining the SOW will help ensure everyone working on the campaign is aligned to bring the campaign to life. It will also help you define what is needed for agencies taking part in the Request for Proposals (RFP) process.

Creative agencies provide various services. It is important to understand what you are looking for before you begin recruitment. In most cases, a creative agency will be asked to develop a creative campaign idea and meaningful campaign messages. They will also help you define what media types work best in your location and for the campaign itself. However, there are other services you may consider, including account management, campaign and communications strategic planning, media production and more.

Using the tools provided, you will develop an initial SOW to be used together with a Creative Brief and RFP to recruit creative agencies. The SOW is used to set expectations for creative agency deliverables, outputs and deadlines before work on the campaign materials begins. Creative agencies will also use SOW information to create a staffing plan and fee proposal.

The SOW developed now will not be the final version. Following the RFP process and pitch presentations, it will be reviewed and revised with help from the selected agency before a contract is formalised. While it is possible to divide work across multiple agencies with different specialties, if this is your first experience working with a creative agency, you may find it simpler to work with only one agency.

Develop a Creative Brief

Another important part of the RFP process is the Creative Brief. This is used as a tool to communicate information about your campaign to help creative agencies understand your needs for campaign messages, materials and more. They also use the information to create a pitch that showcases the approach they would take in developing and implementing your campaign materials during the RFP process.

It is critical that you work collaboratively with your team, the CMT and the CAC to clearly communicate what is currently known and unknown about the problem, audience and IYCF behaviours. When you begin recruiting creative agencies to support the campaign, the Creative Brief will be included together with the SOW and the RFP Document as part of the RFP Package.

The RFP Document

The RFP Document is the last element of the RFP Package that will be shared with creative agencies to guide how they can support your programme. The document should be written to provide important programme information and communicate what the agency should consider. Sections of the RFP Document include the following: a brief introduction, proposal deadline, questions regarding the RFP, deadline summary, budget, RFP participation deliverables, and an overview of how submissions will be assessed.

The ‘RFP participation deliverables’ section includes guidance on the submission of a written proposal and delivery of a creative pitch presentation. Using the guidance provided in the document, agencies will first submit a complete written proposal for committee consideration. The two or three agencies with successful proposals will be invited to participate in an interview and creative pitch presentation, details of which may be included in the RFP Document, or provided to the selected agencies after the proposal process.