Calif. Lottery Review Stalls Once More

LOS ANGELES The review for the California Lottery's four-year, $100 million general-market advertising account has once again been postponed.The lottery was expected to name finalists today after reviewing proposals from the eight agencies participating in the search. Instead, the lottery issued an amendment to the request for proposal and is asking shops to resubmit RFPs by Jan. 14."Out of all the proposals submitted, nearly all of them showed material problems, "said lottery representative Rosa Escutia. She added that those problems included proposals from agencies that did not meet billing requirements or disclosure requirements, a problem that has plagued previous reviews. The agencies that had submitted proposals were Omnicom's BBDO West in Los Angeles and San Francisco, which is pitching with PHD, and DDB in Venice, Calif., pitching with Alcone Marketing and OMD; Interpublic Group shops Dailey & Associates in West Hollywood, Calif., Foote Cone & Belding in San Francisco and McCann-Erickson in Los Angeles; Grey Global Group's Grey in Los Angeles, which is the incumbent; and independent Ground Zero in Marina del Rey, Calif., and Triple Play, an entity that combines Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn in Sacramento, Calif., with Horizon Media and WongDoody, both in Los Angeles.Escutia would not name the agencies whose proposals did not meet requirements or say exactly how many proposals were unacceptable, and said agencies will not be told if their proposals were flawed. "Everyone will be treated equally," she said. "If one of the eight agencies calls, we will encourage them to review the problem areas in the amendment and compare it to what they submitted and make the determination of what they need to strengthen it. We are not going to guide them or consult with them to improve it."The amendment to the RFP clarified disclosure requirements and noted that account billings for agencies must be for the calendar year 2002.According to the lottery, an agency must indicate in writing whether it wishes to withdraw its proposal, have the existing proposal evaluated, submit a new proposal or amend portions of the previously submitted proposal. In addition to the eight shops that submitted proposals, the lottery is also inviting shops that participated in the bidders conference but did not submit bids to do so. Those shops included WPP's J. Walter Thompson in Los Angeles and Young & Rubicam in San Francisco, and Omnicom's TBWA\Chiat\Day in San Francisco.After reviewing proposals, the lottery is now expected to name finalists on Jan. 27. Final presentations are expected to take place Jan. 28-Feb. 5. A winner is expected to be selected by March 10. This is the third review the lottery has held for its general-market account in the last two years. DDB in Los Angeles, FCB in San Francisco and McCann in Los Angeles were named the winners in preceding reviews, but those decisions were overturned following protests from competing agencies.

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Calif. Lottery Review Stalls Once More

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