Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JUNE 18, 2008 FBO #2396
SOURCES SOUGHT

R -- Advertizing Literacy Campaign

Notice Date

6/16/2008
 

Notice Type

Sources Sought
 

NAICS

541511 — Custom Computer Programming Services
 

Contracting Office

Federal Trade Commission, Financial Management Office, Acquisitions, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Room 774, Washington, District of Columbia, 20580
 

ZIP Code

20580
 

Solicitation Number

FTCRFI2008-02
 

Response Due

6/23/2008
 

Archive Date

7/8/2008
 

Point of Contact

Edwin Franklin,, Phone: 202-326-3026
 

E-Mail Address

efranklin@ftc.gov
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION REQUEST FOR INFORMATION/SOURCES SOUGHT RESPONSES DUE: 23 JUNE 2008 NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTES: NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED FROM THIS INFORMATIONAL REQUEST The Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Division of Consumer and Business Education (DCBE) is seeking sources and capabilities information in the planning, implementation, and marketing of a campaign dealing with advertising that would teach tweens (children between the ages of eight and twelve) and the adults in their lives to be more discerning consumers of information. The information below provides the background, essential elements and processes expected to be obtained through a future contract action in the pursuit of this endeavor. If your firm is interested in participating in this effort, please submit a letter of interest to Edwin Franklin at: efranklin@ftc.gov by close of the business day on Monday, Jun 23, 2008. Please provide, in addition to your letter of interest, your firm's capabilities information, examples of successful past performance of a similar nature, information representing your firm's status under the Small Business Act, contract numbers if your firm currently holds a GSA Federal Supply Services contract for this type of service or any other federally-placed IDIQ contract for similar services, and any other information that might be useful to us in our planning process. Advertising Literacy Campaign Agency Overview The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. The FTC maintains a website, www.ftc.gov, and a national toll-free telephone line (1-877-FTC-HELP) to respond to requests for information and accept consumer complaints. As the nation's consumer protection agency, the FTC, through its Division of Advertising Practices, enforces truth-in-advertising laws, monitors and develops effective enforcement strategies for new advertising techniques and media, such as word-of-mouth marketing; monitors and reports on the advertising of food to children, including the impact of practices by food companies and the media on childhood obesity; and monitors and reports on industry practices regarding the marketing of violent movies, music, and electronic games to children. Building on that expertise, the FTC, through its Division of Consumer and Business Education (DCBE), will develop an interactive campaign dealing with advertising that would teach tweens and the adults in their lives to be more discerning consumers of information. DCBE produces and disseminates objective, practical and plain language information to consumers, and has created a network of partners and intermediaries that includes public agencies at the federal, state and local levels, industry associations, and non-profit and advocacy organizations. The issues covered range from identity theft to online safety; green marketing to health claims; from telemarketing fraud to phishing - and include a soon-to-be launched website to explain the FTC to kids ages 10-14. The agency is a trusted brand for consumers and businesses, and has an excellent reputation among media outlets for the "news" of the day, as well for the "news people can use." In building out this particular campaign, the FTC is seeking guidance from a contractor with experience and expertise in reaching youngsters, as well as their parents and educators. We recommend that interested parties review the FTC's consumer education materials for an understanding of the many issues the FTC manages. These sites are available at www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm. Interested parties also should review the following education campaign web sites and products for an appreciation of the latest initiatives and strategies implemented: 1. Consumer education video on how to avoid ID theft www.ftc.gov/idtheft 2. Interactive games and quizzes about Internet safety www.onguardonline.gov/quiz/index.html 3. Phishing videos: www.youtube.com/user/FTCvideos 4. Teaser sites: www.wemarket4u.net/fatfoe/index.html, www.wemarket4u.net/glucobate/index.html 5. Teen drinking prevention: www.dontserveteens.gov/ 6. E-cards: Phishing, www.ftc.gov/phishing, Father's Day Phishing www.ftc.gov/dad, Mother's Day www.ftc.gov/mom, Work-at-home scams www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/multimedia/ecards/bizopps/fairytale/index.html 7. Business guidance: Web-based tutorial for businesses about protecting personal information http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/multimedia/interactive/infosecurity/index.html Draft Campaign Overview Advertising in America is a multi-billion dollar a year business. Truthful advertising provides consumers with the information they need to make better-informed purchasing decisions. It also gives companies an incentive to include features in their products that consumers want. Children have tremendous spending power. For example, tweens spend about $51 billion annually, and their parents and family members spend an additional $170 billion on them. More than a third of parents with children between the ages of six and 11 in the household say that their children can significantly influence their purchasing decisions. By some estimates, American companies are spending $10-12 billion a year on advertising and marketing related to youth 2-18 (including ads targeted to adults for youth-related products and services). Recognizing this, advertisers and marketers have made children a focal point of advertising and marketing programs. For example, it has been estimated that, each year, the average American child between the ages of two and 11 sees 25,600 television commercials. About 22 percent of these ads are for food; 29 percent promote other TV programs; 8 percent are for games, toys, and hobbies; another 8 percent are for screen and audio entertainment; and 3 percent are for OTC medicines. Children as young as three recognize brand logos, with brand loyalty influence starting at age two. About 53 percent of tweens and 29 percent of teens report that they try to buy products that they've seen on TV or in the movies. Given this phenomenon, the FTC proposes to develop an interactive campaign focused on advertising literacy. The campaign will educate children aged 8-12, and the adults in their lives, to be more discerning consumers of information. The FTC seeks to be neither pro- nor anti-advertising; rather, it wants to help kids better understand advertising. The goals of the campaign are to raise awareness of advertising and marketing messages; increase knowledge of how to skillfully read, analyze, and understand an advertisement; and demonstrate the benefits of being an informed consumer. The content of the campaign will be provided by the FTC, and be based upon the agency's experience with the subject matter, a public workshop to be held in 2008-2009, and the experiences of a network of partners. Central to the campaign are some common-sense questions to help young people use critical thinking skills to become savvy consumers in today=s media-rich world: 1. Who is responsible for the ad? Kids should know that whoever is responsible for an ad will have a goal in mind, and that will influence the message in the ad. 2. What is the ad actually saying? This may be obvious in a traditional commercial or print ad, but can be less so in other forms of advertising, including games, product integration, or mobile marketing. The campaign will show kids how to decode and deconstruct ads, no matter what form they take, to find the basic message directed to them. 3. Why is the ad there? The campaign will ask kids to think about the call to action in the ad, and what the advertiser wants them to do. Once exposed to those central messages, the target audience(s) should understand that ads are constructed to give them information and to persuade them to take some action - whether it=s doing something to help themselves or society, being more aware of an issue, buying a particular product, or something else. While the focus of the campaign is on advertising and marketing - helping young people and their parents analyze advertising messages - the critical thinking skills that are central to the campaign, and that kids are learning in other contexts, will be helpful as they interact with all kinds of media throughout their lives. The FTC will be seeking a contractor to provide a variety of services in support of this campaign to empower children and their parents to be more discerning consumers of information. The contractor shall demonstrate experience: 1) developing successful interactive, multi-media, web-based methods for communicating with young audiences; 2) developing curricula to deliver content to young people; 3) developing engaging, inviting and appropriate materials to deliver content to young people; and 4) successfully marketing this information to young people, whether through media or through developing partnerships with influential organizations (schools, libraries, other organizations). Target Audiences The primary audience for this campaign is youngsters aged 8-12. The advertising industry itself talks of the buying power - and influence - of this cohort, and continues to find new ways to reach them, including viral marketing, advergaming, and other interactive media. In addition, both research and observation tell us that children experience media differently than adults; in fact, children=s ability to comprehend and evaluate advertising messages has spurred a good deal of debate and research over the past 30 years. One conclusion by researchers is that children in different age groups have different information processing skills. Many categorize children aged 8-12 as "cued processors" - able to retrieve and use information, engaging critical thinking skills, but only when cued. Kids in this age group tend not to think critically and often fail to differentiate between central and peripheral content when learning new information. Our aim is to give them some tools they can use, and some cues on when to use them at a time when many of them are starting to have their own money, make independent purchasing decisions, and exert influence on the family=s buying decisions. The secondary audience for this campaign includes parents and educators, primarily as a mechanism to reinforce the questions and concepts being delivered to the 8-12-year-old target audience. Both parents and teachers can help cue these children to apply critical thinking skills. We are seeking parties that may be interested in assisting FTC in this proposed campaign that have experience reaching: • Children aged 8-12 • Parents and other caregivers • Teachers and other educators Areas of Interest The FTC seeks firms that are interested in assisting the agency in the design, implementation and marketing of a campaign to promote advertising literacy, including the following: 1. Developing successful interactive, multimedia, web-based methods for communicating with young audiences: This will involve working with the FTC to create and implement an interactive website designed to engage youngsters in the target age group. Games and activities should illustrate the core concepts and key questions about understanding advertising. The site also will have sections with resources for parents and teachers to use and download. The construction of the interactive website is expected to occupy much of the first year of the campaign. Subsequently, the tasks will include developing innovative tools to enhance the agency's ability to effectively and efficiently deliver the campaign message to both primary and secondary target audiences. Products to be created may include print materials, and CDs and DVDs suitable for use in schools and libraries. 2. Developing curricula to deliver content to young people: This will include creating engaging, creative, and interactive curricula that teach children 8-12 about advertising. 3. Developing engaging, inviting and appropriate materials to deliver content to young people: This will include developing engaging, creative, and useful materials to support the campaign messages about recognizing and decoding advertising. These materials might include print, audio, video, and other multimedia materials. 4. Success in marketing information to young people: This will include developing and carrying out a plan to market the campaign's resources to the target audience (including children aged 8-12, parents, and educators). A challenge of the campaign will be to cut through the clutter that children hear and see in the media everyday, developing messages that resonate with them, and finding ways to deliver the message in ways they will see, use, and learn from it. Using the same channels that advertisers and marketers use to communicate with kids may be more likely to be successful in reaching and resonating with the target audience, so the contractor shall consider those in developing and carrying out a marketing plan. Period of Performance: The Period of Performance for this campaign is initially expected to include a one-year base period with three one-year optional periods. Budgetary Amount: The FTC has budgeted about $2 million a year for this campaign.
 

Web Link

FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=70afb3fefae73d16a259ce19e26497f7&tab=core&_cview=1)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Federal Trade Commission, Division of Consumer and Business Education, Wasington, District of Columbia, 20580, United States

Zip Code: 20580
 

Record

SN01594230-W 20080618/080616215933-70afb3fefae73d16a259ce19e26497f7 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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