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MediaCom NHS Featherbrooksbank

Government media buying contract extends to 'unaware' public clients

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

March 25, 2008 | 2 min read

Of the possible 199 clients who can use the Scottish Government's media buying contract, many are unaware that they qualify to do so.

Mediacom Scotland won the expanded Scottish Government media brief late last year and next month, VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise will join the pool which now sees 199 potential clients included.

On 1 April, The Scottish Enterprise account, thought to be worth over £4m a year will move from Feather Brooksbank, while VisitScotland will also come under the contract, while already being a MediaCom client.

The two will join clients such as the Scottish Government, Historic Scotland, Quality Meat Scotland, The Scottish Parliament, NHS 24, NHS Health Scotland and Scottish National Blood Transfusion.

The number of clients able to access the framework contract, worth up to £60m, has increased following the 2006 procurement report by John McLelland which influenced the Governments marketing tender policy.

However, an industry source has claimed that not all of the non-departmental public bodies now eligible to use the contract are aware of this as there is no requirement for those clients to use the contract and are therefore still able to use other media agencies if they choose to do so.

The source continued; “The contract was open to anyone who wished to join it, as it was not clearly defined. What you’ve got is a situation where any public sector body or non-departmental public body can join.”

A spokesperson for The Scottish Government said that there had been no change to the contract, and that as it is a framework contract, it is “open to all agencies and NDPB’s to utilise.”

No one at MediaCom would comment on the issue.

MediaCom NHS Featherbrooksbank

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