Council ad deal queried

The City of Perth’s tendering process has come under fire from one of Western Australia’s largest advertising agencies.

Marketforce has held the City of Perth’s $1.5 million advertising account for the past three years but, through a re-tendering process, lost the account in controversial circumstances to Ad Impact.

While Marketforce had been recommended as the preferred agency by a selection panel that included City of Perth chief executive Frank Edwards, the council rejected those recommendations and selected Ad Impact.

The assessment panel had rated Marketforce as ‘very good’ with a rating of 4.92, while Ad Impact was rated ‘acceptable’ and scored 3.14.

However, six of the City of Perth’s nine-member council disagreed with the outcome.

They had discussed the advertising tenders at a budgets and business opportunities committee meeting before last Tuesday’s council meeting.

Councillor Bert Tudori, a member of the committee, said its members disagreed with the weighting of the selection criteria.

“Ad Impact was better value for money,” he told WA Business News.

“They were far superior in terms of the creative and value for money. They had new and fresh ideas. They had great ideas and they included a section on Northbridge, not once did Marketforce mention Northbridge.”

Mr Tudori said Marketforce was recommended as the preferred candidate because of strengths it achieved in a number of criteria, something the committee placed less importance on.

“We agreed to the criteria but we didn’t agree with the weighting of them,” he said.

“How can value for money only be 10 per cent? It should be 40 per cent; if you are a ratepayer you want value for money.”

Other criteria included a proven track record in managing accounts billing in excess of $1 million, a proven track record in developing event advertising campaigns and quality of experience of personnel, he said.

Mr Tudori said quality of staff and experience with million-dollar accounts should not have more weighting than components such as value for money. 

Councillor Judy McEvoy, who voted against the selection of Ad Impact, said the process was open to question.

“When we started these committees we decided there should be only four people on the committees so it would only be half the council,” she said.

“Then a few people spoke up and so the budgets committee now has more people on it and the decision gets made before the council meeting, in a private meeting.

“It’s not a good process.”

Marketforce chairman Howard Read said he was currently assessing the agency’s legal position.

“We think this is a highly unfair process,” he said.

“Why are we asked to present on the basis of criteria that we answer and the council choose to ignore it? That has huge ramifications for our industry and for everyone else.”

Ad Impact was obviously excited about the win but the agency’s managing, director Luciano D’Ambrogio, said he was disappointed with Marketforce’s response.

“We won this fair and square, but it’s been a bit of a hollow victory because Marketforce is waging this campaign,” he said.

“The majority of the council thought the administration panel was incorrect and they voted against them in favour of our submission.

“We did a really big submission, we went in with our guns blazing and put together an impressive submission.

“If we went in and did nothing and came out and won I could understand them getting upset but we did a lot of work and spent a lot of time and money.

Mr D’Ambrogio was chairman of the Northbridge Business Association for four years but said his contacts with council through this position played no part in the tender process.

“Bert Tudori is an acquaintance, we are not friends, and he is an acquaintance because I’m heavily involved in Northbridge,” Mr D’Ambrogio said.

The City of Perth advertising contract is for three years with two one-year options.

Ad Impact works for clients such as Palandri, WA Turf Club, and Midalia Steel.

The new contract is a welcome boost to the 16-year-old agency that is now in the process of recruiting new staff to handle the increased workload. 

Marketforce won the City of Perth advertising account in similar circumstances four years ago.

The administration had recommended JDA Advertising for the advertising pitch but the council chose Marketforce.