FDA-17-SOL-8766_QA.pdf

Question Answer

Whether companies from Outside USA can apply for this? (like,from India or Canada)

The solicitation does not restrict companies from outside the USA from proposing.

2 Whether we need to come over there for meetings?

The government assumes some in-person meetings will be necessary throughout the course of this contract. Refer to Attachment A: Task 5, page 15, and provide your technical solution to this requirement, including an approach to ensure effective communication with the government.

Can we perform the tasks (related to RFP) outside USA? (like, from India or Canada) See 14.3 of the solicitation for work location requirements.

4 Can we submit the proposals via email? See 8.5 of the solicitation for submission requirements.

The solicitation requirements seem restrictive and slanted toward the incumbent. The 30-day proposal time line, the maximum of 35-pages for Technical response, the requirement to be able to advance $70 million per year in upfront advertising costs, and the early release of the RFP (based on prior communications) all point to a predisposition toward the incumbent. How can bidders be confident that there is truly an opportunity to unseat the current contractor?

This solicitation has been constructed and published in accordance with FAR Parts 12 and 15. There is no predisposition to any one vendor.

The solicitation states that the FDA is planning to keep "The Real Cost" campaign as well as the “Fresh Empire” campaign. Would you say that it is not necessary for the prime contractor to be a creative agency?

Creative development and production is a key task area of the requirement;

however it is up to the offeror to propose their technical solution including what type of company serves as the prime contractor.

Since the RFP is looking for efficiency of operations, is the way the incumbent works with their sub-contractors is sub-par?

The government will not discuss the performance of prime or sub-contractors under prior contracts.

FDA CTP Ad Campaign Program

FDA-17-SOL-8766

With regards to the Conflicts of Interest – Clause 13.3.6:

The Conflict of Interest clause seems exceptionally restrictive to competition.

Even the incumbent contractors have OCI issues per clause 13.3.6. What types of firewalls will the Government allow to satisfactorily "avoid, neutralize or mitigate" the perceived conflicts? Will the Government please describe the approved firewalls currently in place for the current contract holders?

In an effort to avoid conflicts of interest, FDA has created a clause which imposes the least restriction possible while also protecting the sensitive nature of this requirement. In order to create maximum inclusivity FDA will not impose any restrictions on the content of vendors responses to Factor 1 of the evaluation criteria. Vendors must disclose any relevant information, describe whether or not they believe this information creates a potential conflict of interest, and explain why. Further, vendors must describe any mitigation strategies that will avoid potential conflicts of interest. FDA will not prescribe any one specific standard for firewalls. The purpose of the conflicts of interest clause is to avoid conflicts within the primary organization that will perform the services in this contract. Financial relationships outside of the primary organization may be mitigated through a comprehensive response to Factor 1 of the evaluation criteria.

With regards to the Conflicts of Interest – Clause 13.3.6:

The vast majority of large business agencies have tobacco experience within the last 5 years if international parent/affiliates are included as part of the conflict of interest statement. Will exceptions be made if the prime contractor establishes firewalls from agency affiliates in international countries and/or other US offices with past tobacco experience? See response to question #8.

With regards to the Conflicts of Interest – Clause 13.3.6:

Is a holding company and/or its subsidiaries eligible to bid as a Prime, if current conflicts of interest exist in any local or global affiliate agencies to the Prime?

Yes, however, FDA will make a determination as to whether a conflict of interest exists based upon the vendors response to evalution factor #1. See response to question #8

With regards to the Conflicts of Interest – Clause 13.3.6:

Can bidders submit their descriptions of proposed mitigation actions, and receive confirmation of their acceptance by the Government, prior to submitting a proposal? No

12 Is there an anticipated date of award, overall? The FDA anticipates award before 9/30/2017

In the Statement of Work, the contract value is $625 million, however in the Consolidation document, the contract value is $600 million. Please confirm the correct value. The total contract value is $625M.

Does references/footnotes in Factor II: Technical section count towards the 35 page limit? Yes.

In Appendix A, it requires the “percent of time each key personnel will be available to work on this contract” to be noted on the resumes. Please confirm if this is only for the first year or an average of the five year contract.

Key Personnel should be allocated as a percent of their time across the five year period of performance, which may be calculated as an average.

In the Solicitation Document section 8.4 Business Proposal Instructions, the government appears to be asking that the offeror to provide a detailed breakdown and identify the specific elements for each proposed billable labor rate, to include direct cost, fringe benefits, indirect (overhead) cost and fee.

Please confirm this to be the government’s intent. Or is the government merely asking us to identify the specific burden rates for fringe benefits, indirect (overhead) cost and profit?

· Is this same information required for all subcontract partners, both large and small, for whom we would be submitting labor rates? Assuming a detailed breakdown is required, is there a preferred format for this information?

· Also, please confirm that the word “fee” is intended to be the contractor’s proposed profit.

The rates provided shall be fully burdened rates, based on the labor category proposed. The solicitation has been ammended to state this.

In the Solicitation Document section Detailed Breakdown of Estimated Costs -the Pricing Spreadsheet (attachment E) only provides for a single billable rate against which proposed labor hours will be priced out.

· The 2nd bullet point listed directs us to propose fully burdened rates, exclusive of profit. This will result in a price proposal that excludes profit. Is this the government’s intent? Please confirm.

· The 11th bullet point directs us to provide estimated cost for all key personnel. Since key personnel will be included with all other personnel in our overall pricing proposal, please confirm that the government requires a separate estimated price for proposed key personnel only.

All rates are to be fully burdened.

Key Personnel labor rates are to be fully burdened

All rates are to be provided under Attachement E of the solicitation.

In the Solicitation Document section Other Administrative Data, can the offeror prepare and submit SF33 to satisfy these requirements?

The offeror may submit the required information in the way they deem best suited to their proposal.

In the Attachment D Small Business Subcontracting Plan, the plan format provided includes option year pricing. Please confirm this is a five year contract with no options. This is a five year contract with no options.

Should the offerors plan and budget for all of the campaigns (TRC, FE, TFL, POS and AN/AI) to be in market for the entire five year contract period? If not, how many years should each campaign be in market?

Yes, offerors should assume all campaigns are in market for the entire five year contract period.

Are the resumes of the 11 designated Key Personnel the only resumes required, or do you want the resumes of all personnel anticipated to work on this contract?

Only Key Personnel resumes are required and do not count against the page limit for Factor IV.

If we would like to propose different Key Personnel for different campaigns (i.e.

a different Creative Director for campaign A and campaign B), can we provide resumes and information for BOTH Creative Directors (limited to 1 per campaign), or does the overall contract need a SINGLE Creative Director (and all other Key Personnel positions)?

Although not required, offerors may propose key personnel for each individual campaign, as outlined in the Statement of Work.

In the Business proposal, are the estimated costs only supposed to include the Key Personnel, or should it include ALL personnel anticipated to work on this contract?

The business proposal should provide a total contract solution, including labor estimates for all staff that would work on this contract.

The RFP mentions that $125 million in labor costs will be funded upon contract award. How will you plan to allocate ODC’s?

Per the solicitation, ODCs will be partially funded throughout the life of the contract.

25 Can the contractor create a new Key Personnel category if deemed necessary?

No, though the offeror may provide in their proposal personnel they feel will show added benefit to the project. The Key Personnel listed are the only which FDA will track under this contract.

The RFP currently states that the 33% small business requirement must be achieved through labor hours. However, there are small businesses such as media companies, production companies, event partners and other direct costs that could also support these campaigns. For example, some LGBT and American Indian/Alaska Native media companies are small businesses. Can small business ODCs also count toward the small business requirement? If so, what total contract value amount should be used to calculate the 33%?

The $125M labor budget is the contract amount that should be used to calculate the 33% small business participation plan, for a minimum small business requirement amount of $41.6M.

On page 10 of the Solicitation, it states that the subcontracting goal is 33% of the Total contract value, and then on page 19 it states that the goal is 33% of the labor hour value. Does the 33% goal refer to the Total Contract Value, or is it of labor hours? OR, is it 33% of labor AND 33% of ODCs?

This contractdiction has been corrected in the solicitation, the 33% goal is of the Labor Hour Value of $125M, for a minimum small business requirement amount of $41.6M.

Page 13 of the Solicitation states “Propose fully burdened rates exclusive of profit;” Should that say “inclusive” instead of “exclusive”? It is our understanding that labor hours in a Time and Materials (T&M)/Labor Hour (LH) contract should include profit. This is correct, Rates provided are inclusive of profit.

Page 13 of the solicitation states “Provide their published Overhead, and Indirect rates (e.g. G&A, Fringe).” However, Attachment E only asks for a fully loaded Labor rate. Please confirm that contractors should only provide their fully loaded labor rates inclusive of direct labor, overhead, fringe, indirect, and profit.

This is correct, Rates provided are to be fully loaded, inclusive of overhead, fringe, indirect rates and profit.

Since the AI/AN campaign has not yet launched, should the contractor assume that there will need to be planning phase before the contract launch? If so, how many months/years of planning and years of implementation should the contractor anticipate for the AI/AN campaign?

Offerors should assume all campaigns are launched/in market for the entire five year contract period.

Please confirm that Attachment E should total $625 million for the 5-year period with no more than $125 million in labor costs. Correct.

On page 18 of the solicitation, FDA states that Relevant Experienced will meet criteria if it has “1) target audience size of at least 5 million” and “5) a total campaign budget in excess of $50M”. Will efforts that target multicultural and LGBT populations of a similar size and scope to the FDA campaigns “meet criteria,” even if the audience size is under 5 million and budget less than $50M? Relevant Experience must meet the criteria stated in the solicitation.

On page 13 of the solicitation, a bullet asks for labor rates and estimated hours for all labor categories. However, the only personnel titles are provided in the Key Personnel list. If there are other positions required to fulfill this work, should they be added in additional rows to Attachment E and included in the Labor Hour / Cost projections? Or, should Attachment E be reserved for only designated Key Personnel?

It is the offeror's responsibility based on their technical solution to propose all labor categories and hours necessary to do the proposed work.

Small Business Participation Plan and Small Business Subcontracting Plan – based on the various documents that were provided, we are unclear regarding the specific requirements for each of these plans and respectfully request clarification.

· For the Small Business Participation Plan, we assume that the Small Business Participation goal should be 33% of the Total Estimated Labor of $125 million and NOT of the Total Contract Value. Please confirm if our interpretation is correct.

· For the Small Business Subcontracting Plan, we assume that the 33% Small Business Subcontracting Plan goal is based on the Total subcontractiable amount and NOT the Total Contract Value. Please also confirm if our interpretation is correct.

The $125M labor budget is the contract amount that should be used to calculate the 33% small business participation plan, for a minimum small business requirement amount of $41.6M.

The small business percentages on page 10 of the Solicitation document are different from those on page 2 of Attachment D. Please confirm the correct percentages.

The small business percentages on pgs 10 and 19 are examples. The FDA's small business goals for this contract are stated on pg 14, and now mimic those of Attachment D.

What data analytics tools and sources are you currently using to inform strategies for the campaigns? Is this completely separate from tools being used for evaluation?

Offerors should provide their recommendation on how to inform campaign strategy, including what tools and sources are used to analyze data.

In comparison with other tasks within the Statement of Work, how does PR/Outreach weigh in importance/work volume?

This is primarily an FDA function, as indicated by the SOW: "The Contractor shall coordinate with and support CTP and FDA media relations components to promote campaign messages and provide logistical support at campaign related events."

In the Statement of Work, under 4. Scope, it’s mentioned that the Contractor "should provide comprehensive campaign services to include, but not limited to financing and placing annual media buys in excess of $100 million.” Are you requesting contractors to finance the media investments? Meaning, paying media vendors on behalf of the FDA and then getting reimbursed? If, so can this language be adjusted to indicate that "the Contractor will place the media buys and issue payment upon receipt of payment from the FDA?"

Under 52.212-4 (i) Payment.—(1) Items accepted. Payment shall be made for items accepted by the Government that have been delivered to the delivery destinations set forth in this contract.

Therefore, the prime contractor is responsible for all payments under the contract to ensure performance of the contract is satisfactorily completed.

Under this contract, the government will not have any financing.

Can you reconfirm that no creative development/spec work is required for the Technical Capabilities and Approach?

Spec Work is not required, however, the offeror must provide some level of conceptual development to demonstrate their capability/capacity to do so as prescribed under the SOW.

The RFP requires the Offeror to have the capability to front $70 million annually in advertising costs and buy advertisements at volumes that only large advertising firms can achieve. The RFP also states that “Offerors that are currently or have recently (within the past 5 years) engaged in advertising, marketing or promotion services on behalf of regulated tobacco industry will be considered to have a significant conflict of interest that would impair objectivity in performance of this requirement. Offerors with this type of significant conflict of interest will be ineligible for award.” Firms with the capability to front millions of dollars in costs and buy the volume required by the RFP are all owned by large companies that have numerous firms under the larger company that serve all categories, including tobacco. Does the FDA intend that an Offeror will be ineligible for award because another company owned by the Offeror’s parent or holding company (or affiliate, division, subsidiary or successors in interest as stated in article 13.3.6 of the solicitation) has engaged in advertising, marketing or promotion services for the regulated tobacco industry even though the Offeror itself has not engaged in advertising, marketing or promotion services for the regulated tobacco industry and is able to conduct this work under a mitigation plan? If so, this is a significant change from the initial contract for this work and the award FDA recently made for RFQ1137357 where potential conflicts might be applicable, and the FDA is now likely excluding many capable bidders, including the current incumbent from being eligible for award. See response to question #8.

Would the Government consider extending the deadline for this proposal since the solicitation was released during a time where many staff were on leave for the holidays? Not at this time.

Page 11-12: Does the PPT for the oral presentations have to be submitted with the full proposal?

No, the oral presentation PPT does not need to be submitted with the proposal.

Offerors found to be in the competitive range may or may not be required to make an oral presentation.

Page 10: It reads: “the Government intends to contact the Offeror’s previous customers/clients…to conduct phone interviews…for the assessment of the offeror’s past performance.”

On page 15 (Section 8.5) it references the submission of past performance questionnaires.

Are past performance questionnaires required if phone interviews will be conducted? Is there a questionnaire template?

The phone interview portion has been removed from the solicitation. The FDA will not conduct phone interview.

Past Performance questionnaires are not required. There is no template.

44 Does formative testing conducted online have to be 508 compliant? Yes.

45 Can the Government share previous campaign outcome evaluation reports? All government-provided background materials are found in Attachment B.

Can the Government share formative evaluation data for the POS campaign and strategy? All government-provided background materials are found in Attachment B.

Section 9.1 Technical Proposal Evaluation Fact II states in fifth bullet: The extent to which the proposed campaign and early creative concepts present a feasible approach and compelling messaging that directly relates to FDA’s authority to regulate tobacco products and educate the public about the dangers of tobacco use (i.e., messaging shall be grounded in FDA’s key areas of regulatory authority including addiction/loss of control, negative health consequences and dangerous chemicals) “Early Creative concepts” were not referenced in prior sections, other than in the oral round. Will this Technical Proposal Evaluation include the oral round, or should early creative concepts be included in the written response?

Within their proposal, offerors should provide examples that clearly demonstrate their capacity to develop and produce feasible and compelling messaging that meet the requirements of the SOW.

Offerors found to be in the competitive range may or may not be required to make an oral presentation.

On page 61 of Attachment A, there is a reference to “Every Try Counts” as it relates to the POS Creative Concept Research. Is this a creative campaign theme that performed well in testing and CTP is planning to move forward with? If so, are there creative boards that offerors could review as it will affect how we think about our creative approach?

Yes, the "Every Try Counts" concept is a tested creative campaign theme that CTP does intend to move forward with. All government-provided background materials are found in Attachment B.

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