NEW YORK: The federal government has sustained McCann’s protest of its elimination from the U.S. Army's advertising and marketing RFP.
The Government Accountability Office decision concluded that the Interpublic Group creative shop was "unreasonably excluded" from consideration. It recommended the Army re-evaluate McCann’s proposal.
Fellow Interpublic firm Weber Shandwick has worked alongside McCann on the account.
In August, the Army extended McCann’s contract through September 2018. The extension request cited the need for McCann to execute its fiscal year 2017 advertising plan and accommodate increased recruitment and retention requirements from the Army Increase in End-Strength Initiative.
The extension also pushed the award date for the latest RFP to the second quarter of the Army’s 2018 fiscal year, which will begin on October 1. The extension is worth an additional $524.1 million in fees.
McCann has held the marketing and advertising contract with the Army for more than a decade, first winning the account in 2005. The latest RFP, for which bids were first accepted in January, is for a 10-year contract worth up to $4 billion.
Representatives from McCann and the Army could not be immediately reached for comment.
