APRD 3004 · Account Management · Fall 2026 · Znerold
Reading · for Week 3
an RFP, lightly redacted
Read it the way an agency would: once for what is being asked, once for what a careful shop would flag before saying yes.
What you are holding is a composite, built for teaching. Every clause in it has appeared in a real RFP; I have reassembled them around a fictional client, Ouzel Provisions Co., which does not exist, and redacted the document the way these things actually circulate. The dates sit inside our own semester so you can feel how fast this clock runs. The black-and-gold notes are mine: they name what a smart agency flags before deciding whether to pitch at all.
COMPOSITE · FICTIONAL CLIENT
Request for Proposal: Integrated Agency Services
Ouzel Provisions Co. · natural-foods grocery, 22 stores, Colorado Front Range · Issued by Corporate Procurement, Friday, August 28, 2026
Responses due Friday, September 11, 2026, 5:00 p.m. MT, via the procurement portal. Late submissions will not be reviewed. Direct all questions to ██████ ████████, Director of Strategic Sourcing. Contact with any member of the marketing organization during the review period will result in disqualification.
1 · background
Ouzel Provisions Co. is a privately held grocer with annual revenue of approximately $███ million. The company will run its largest holiday campaign to date in November 2026 and is seeking an agency partner for brand strategy, creative development, and media planning, with the intent of an ongoing 2027 relationship. This RFP has been issued to nine agencies, including the incumbent agency of record, ███████ █████, which has been invited to defend the business.
2 · scope of work
- A holiday 2026 brand campaign: creative for streaming video, paid social, digital audio, and in-store, in market by late November
- Media strategy, planning, and buying for the campaign flight
- A refreshed brand platform carrying into 2027 retail marketing
- Weekly status reporting and a post-campaign results readout
3 · what to submit, and by when
- Agency credentials and organizational overview, ten pages maximum
- Three case studies with documented business results
- Your proposed approach to the scope of work above
- Bios of the team that would staff this account, not the team pitching it
- A fee proposal and full rate card
- Three client references and a disclosure of category conflicts
All six items are due together by 5:00 p.m. MT on Friday, September 11, 2026, through the procurement portal.
4 · timeline
| milestone | date |
|---|
| RFP issued | Friday, Aug 28 |
| Intent to respond due | Wednesday, Sep 2 |
| Written questions due; answers circulated to all | Friday, Sep 4 · Tuesday, Sep 8 |
| Written responses due | Friday, Sep 11, 5:00 p.m. MT |
| Shortlist notified | Friday, Sep 18 |
| Finalist presentations, including creative territories | Tuesday-Wednesday, Sep 29-30 |
| Agency selected | Friday, Oct 9 |
| Campaign in market | Monday, Nov 23 |
what a smart agency flags · the calendar
Count backward. Selection October 9, in market November 23: six and a half weeks to contract, staff, produce, and traffic a full holiday campaign. And finalists must show creative territories on September 29, four weeks after the RFP dropped. This timeline is a promise about how the client will behave after the honeymoon, too.
5 · budget
Ouzel expects proposals to reflect a total investment appropriate to an initiative of this importance. A budget range will be shared with the selected agency. Respondents should propose fees they believe fit the deliverables described.
what a smart agency flags · the budget line
The budget is undisclosed. You cannot scope against fog: 'appropriate investment' means the client either does not know the number or will not say it, and both answers matter. Pitching is expensive either way; the ANA and 4A's put the average cost of competing in one US review at $204,461 per agency (Cost of the Pitch, 2023). A disciplined shop asks for the range before spending that.
6 · terms and conditions
- All materials submitted in response to this RFP, including strategic recommendations and creative concepts, become the property of Ouzel Provisions Co. upon submission and may be used by the company with or without the participation of the submitting agency, without further compensation.
- Finalist agencies will present at least two creative territories with sample executions across a minimum of three channels. No stipend is offered for finalist work.
- Ouzel's standard payment terms are net 75 days from approved invoice.
- Ouzel may amend the scope, extend or compress the timeline, or cancel this review at any time, at its sole discretion.
what a smart agency flags · the IP clause
Reread the first term. Your thinking becomes their property the moment you submit, win or lose, usable without you and without payment. Agencies handle this clause three ways: negotiate it out, watermark and withhold the real thinking until a contract exists, or decline to pitch. Pretending it is boilerplate is the one wrong answer.
what a smart agency flags · the free work
Two creative territories across three channels is a campaign's worth of thinking, demanded free at the finalist stage, from multiple agencies at once, with no stipend. Steel would add: the agencies most willing to give strategy away are telling you what they think it is worth.
7 · evaluation
Responses will be scored by a committee: strategic approach 30%, relevant experience 25%, team 20%, price 25%. Procurement administers all scoring and all communication.
what a smart agency flags · who holds the pen
Nine agencies, an incumbent defending, marketing unreachable by rule, price a quarter of the score, and procurement running the room. None of that is illegitimate, and all of it changes your odds: the same ANA and 4A's research found about two thirds of reviews keep the incumbent. Strong agencies do the math before they say yes, and they say no more often than you would guess.
Before Wednesday: be able to say, from memory, exactly what this client wants sent back and by when, and pick the one detail that would make you think hardest before pitching, knowing what ignoring it would cost a 60-person shop. RC2 will ask.