It has been over 5 years since the sponsorship scandal, and sources tell us it back to business as usual, getting out the message and telling Canadians about all the news that's fit to print, tweet or blog.
So let's have a look at the spending in 2009 and 2010- and look only at those companies who did business in both those years. This will give us a chance to see the winners and losers. Future posts will deal with flame-outs (no business in the second year) and rising stars (no business in the first year).
Have a look at the Winners and Losers in the Advertising category:
Please have a look at the notice there, and there is a PDF version if that is easier for you to read.
The category has declined- about 25%- that is a large drop. Some of this may be due to the fact that the Government invested heavily in its Economic Action Plan in 2008-9- a one-time boost.
Cossette Communications still dominates the category owing to its Media Buy contract though it took a considerable hit in 2010 of 24M - about 17%, but still less than the overall drop for the category. Cossette is dominant in both flow-through and professional fees- note that their 2009 fees in Advertising alone is greater than the total for the selected companies in all of 2010 combined. In 2010, Cossette was awarded more than $5 for each dollar awarded to all the other companies combined (83% of the total we are looking at).
Keep in mind that dollars in this category include major "flow-through" items like media buys where the vendor/supplier actually receives a very small commission- as low as 1%. (For the top five companies in volume, we also looked at professional fees, in other words non-flow through dollars.)
Ogilvy Montreal is the biggest winner overall in terms of new business, showing very impressive gains in both Advertising Services (+$1M) and in Professional Fees, (also +$1M).
Acart Communications has also done well holding its decline to less than the overall one.
In the smaller dollar awards, some of the increases, as a percentage of growth, are worth a mention. Affinity Productions of Ottawa saw almost 3000% over its 2009 total, and TNS Canadian Facts also saw very significant growth.
Looking at some of our market losers, Marketel McCann Erickson is off by 95%, even factoring in its professional fees. Reliable sources tell us that a major contract that was issued in 2009 may continue into future periods and that the apparent loss of business needs to be seen in that context. Compass Communications has also seen a significant drop in its share of federal spending of more than 80% after enjoying an excellent year in 2009. Allard Johnson also seems to have suffered a major decline of more than $3 million (2/3 of their 2009 success).
When looking at these contract awards, you have to remember that the dollars awarded may not necessarily lead to invoice payments. Conversely, some awards are eventually amended upwards to include additional services that increases the payment above the original award amount. Such is the fuzzy nature of proactive disclosure: reading these is as much an art as a science.
Looking at the category compared to the total of almost 20B in spending in all categories, advertising is small potatoes: about .67%. Still it is such a big pie, and as Cossette has proven, there are a lot of dollars on the table for the advertising companies who can convince Ottawa that they can get the job done.
PerfectOutlook has all the data of all the categories of spending- in a searchable format for only $99 or $49 for a selected query. Learn more.
In the smaller dollar awards, some of the increases, as a percentage of growth, are worth a mention. Affinity Productions of Ottawa saw almost 3000% over its 2009 total, and TNS Canadian Facts also saw very significant growth.
Looking at some of our market losers, Marketel McCann Erickson is off by 95%, even factoring in its professional fees. Reliable sources tell us that a major contract that was issued in 2009 may continue into future periods and that the apparent loss of business needs to be seen in that context. Compass Communications has also seen a significant drop in its share of federal spending of more than 80% after enjoying an excellent year in 2009. Allard Johnson also seems to have suffered a major decline of more than $3 million (2/3 of their 2009 success).
When looking at these contract awards, you have to remember that the dollars awarded may not necessarily lead to invoice payments. Conversely, some awards are eventually amended upwards to include additional services that increases the payment above the original award amount. Such is the fuzzy nature of proactive disclosure: reading these is as much an art as a science.
Looking at the category compared to the total of almost 20B in spending in all categories, advertising is small potatoes: about .67%. Still it is such a big pie, and as Cossette has proven, there are a lot of dollars on the table for the advertising companies who can convince Ottawa that they can get the job done.
PerfectOutlook has all the data of all the categories of spending- in a searchable format for only $99 or $49 for a selected query. Learn more.
