Contract Consolidation, PICS III, and What We're Seeing Across the Market

Last week, NIH announced it is winding down NITAAC and several long-standing governmentwide acquisition contracts as part of the Administration's broader effort to consolidate procurement activity. Full story here. 

For those of us operating in the marketing and communications space, the immediate question is whether this remains largely an IT story—or whether similar consolidation eventually reaches our corner of the market.

What Does This Mean for PICS III?

We've heard several different perspectives over the past few weeks. Some believe PICS continues largely unchanged. Others believe it could ultimately consolidate under a broader HHS acquisition strategy given the number of operating divisions already procuring through the vehicle. Still others believe the long-term destination is GSA as the government continues to centralize acquisition activity.

At this point, there are more opinions than answers. We've placed a call into contracting to better understand how the government is thinking about the future of the vehicle and will share anything meaningful we learn.

A Broader Shift Appears Underway

The NIH announcement feels less like a one-off decision and more like part of a broader trend. We're seeing increasing pressure to eliminate duplicative contracts, consolidate buying power, leverage existing vehicles, and simplify procurement across agencies. We're also seeing this reflected in where opportunities are being released.

Historically, at least anecdotally, we've observed roughly a 75/25 split between opportunities competed in the open market via SAM.gov versus those released through existing contract vehicles such as GSA. Over the past six months, it feels much closer to the inverse.

While not scientific, the shift has been noticeable enough that it comes up regularly in conversations with agencies, contractors, and acquisition professionals. The practical implication is straightforward: firms that have historically relied on open-market competitions may need to rethink their contract vehicle strategy if they want access to the same volume of opportunities moving forward. Whether PICS III is ultimately affected remains to be seen, but we'd be surprised if communications and marketing programs remain completely insulated from the broader consolidation discussions occurring across government.

Agencies Aren't Buying Capabilities. They're Buying Time.

Many of you have reached out following Fors Marsh's recent acquisition activity.

We recently published an op-ed in MediaPost exploring what we believe is one of the more interesting trends in agency M&A today: agencies are increasingly buying access, relationships, market position, and speed—not simply capabilities.

We've seen this play out across multiple transactions over the past year. Fors Marsh's acquisition of BARÚ accelerated access to California's highly relationship-driven public-sector marketplace. Publicis' acquisition of LiveRamp wasn't about adding another agency capability—it was about accelerating access to identity, data infrastructure, and a rapidly evolving marketing ecosystem. Similarly, Ogilvy's acquisition of Article 41 strengthened its position in healthcare communications and provided immediate access to specialized talent, relationships, and credibility in a market where organic growth takes years.

Every acquisition is different, but the common thread is increasingly clear: organizations are using acquisitions to compress time. Time to enter a market. Time to establish credibility. Time to access relationships. Time to accelerate growth. You can read the full piece here: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/415714/agencies-are-no-longer-buying-capabilities-theyr.html