Navy Asks Shops for Creative Ideas Up Front

In an effort to expedite its agency-search, the U.S. Navy has made an unusual request: submit “top-level” creative ideas as part of al submission that is due today.
As a result, contenders must submit work before they present and will be limited to using the materials they submit, sources said.
More than a dozen agencies contacted the Navy about its $40 million account, which includes traditional advertising, direct marketing and interactive duties, said Cmdr. Tom Howington. They include Campbell-Ewald, Detroit, and New York shops Young & Rubicam, Bates Worldwide, and Rapp Collins Worldwide, the direct marketing incumbent, sources said. (Howington de-clined to identify shops and the agencies declined comment.)
Rapp Collins is bidding for the whole account, sources said, but it’s unclear with whom the shop is partnering. Lead incumbent BBDO Worldwide, here, is not defending, according to sources. BBDO de-clined comment.
Also in play are media duties, promotional work and ethnic advertising. The lead agency will be ex-pected to partner with shops that provide those services. The Web is expected to play an integral role in the Navy’s future marketing ef-forts, according to sources.
Besides expediting the search, the request for ideas up front helps even the playing field, sources said. Otherwise, with a long list of shops and potentially several weeks of presentations, some would get more time to prepare than others.
As Howington put it, “We didn’t require them to go out and do spec creative. We’re not requiring technical proposals or even requiring detailed marketing plans for next year. We’re just asking for their top-level approach,” adding, “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible on the offerers.” K