Manifest victory: Ottawa awards its Olympic campaign to Toronto cause marketing agency

Marketing Magazine
September 11, 2009
By David Brown

Ottawa has awarded its $10 million Olympic-themed advertising assignment to Manifest Communications.

“I signed a contract yesterday,” said Mark Sarner, president of the Toronto-based agency that specializes in cause and social marketing efforts. “We are very gratified and flattered to have been selected from what I assume was a fairly impressive group of respondents.”

According to the RFP–which generated a lot of agency interest when it was issued in late July–the campaign will position the Vancouver Olympics as a Canadian event, and encourage Canadians to be more active and adopt healthier lifestyles.

“The end result will be a campaign that articulates these Games as Canada’s Games, where all Canadians can own and share the podium and where sports and the practice of sports meet to make us stronger and healthier as individuals and as a nation.”

The campaign is for the Department of Canadian Heritage while Public Works and Government Services managed the review. Heritage Canada declined to comment about the selection of Manifest and Public Works could not respond by press time.

Soon after issuing the RFP, Heritage Canada confirmed the total budget for the campaign is $10 million, with $1.29 million covering creative production, media strategy, agency fees, focus testing, and for the evaluation of the campaign. The remaining $8.71 million will go to the media buy.

Sarner said he was surprised to get the call yesterday since there had been very little communication with Ottawa since responding to the RFP which outlined a two-stage process. After the initial submissions, three shortlisted agencies making it to the second round were to provide three campaign concepts with web and TV applications for each.

Manifest’s initial submission included one idea for the campaign and Public Works later asked Manifest for two more ideas, but that was it, said Sarner.

“It was really just concepts,” he said. “It wasn’t anything big. There were no visuals. There was no beauty contest.”

There was no interview and no feedback as to why Manifest was chosen. “I am actually quite in the dark,” said Sarner.

Other agencies that pitched for the business said they were equally in the dark about the review, receiving no updates since responding to the RFP until an e-mail was sent out yesterday afternoon notifying them that Manifest won the business.

Manifest was scheduled to talk with Ottawa this afternoon. After that, things will have to happen quickly, said Sarner. The concepts are a long way from being market-ready and the campaign is scheduled to launch when the Olympic torch relay begins in Victoria, B.C. at the end of October. It will run throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games, concluding on March 31.

It also seems likely the campaign will break during the middle of a federal election campaign, but that is irrelevant as far as Sarner is concerned.

“I don’t consider this to be in anyway partisan advertising,” said Sarner. “This is about the public good. This is about influencing Canadians in a positive way.”

Since opening its doors in 1981, said Sarner, Manifest has never done any political advertising.