Federal Awards Are Moving. So Are the Protests.
After months of delays, protests, acquisition changes, and general uncertainty, we're seeing a meaningful wave of federal marketing and communications awards begin to hit.
And one of the clearest themes: incumbents are proving difficult to displace.
Several major contractors have successfully defended their work after lengthy and highly competitive recompetes, while a handful of small businesses and Mentor-Protégé joint ventures are picking up meaningful new wins.
Here's what we're tracking:
Stratacomm successfully defended its $200M+ NHTSA Communications, Marketing and Media Support contract after months of protests, proposal resubmissions, and oral presentations. The extended procurement—and Stratacomm ultimately holding onto the work—is another reminder of just how difficult it can be to unseat a well-positioned incumbent.
Weber Shandwick successfully defended approximately $135M in CMS public education and outreach work supporting Federally Facilitated Marketplace states. The win is particularly notable given the recently reshuffled contractor landscape across CMS's broader communications IDIQ.
Elevation secured the recompete of its approximately $18M CMS Health Insurance Marketplace public education and outreach campaign targeting Spanish-reliant uninsured individuals and consumers enrolling or re-enrolling through CuidadoDeSalud.gov or HealthCare.gov.
Ogilvy won a $7.1M contract at CDC supporting the Inside Knowledge campaign.
Crosby Montage Partners, the Mentor-Protégé joint venture between Crosby Marketing Communications and Montage Marketing Group, secured a $5.2M CDC contract supporting the Bring Your Brave campaign. It's another meaningful federal communications win for an MPP JV—and another example of why we're seeing increased interest in this strategy across the industry.
Red Carrot captured a $4.1M CDC contract supporting digital communications for the Division of Workforce Development.
Barbaricum successfully retained its $1.8M FBI media monitoring contract.
Taken together, these awards represent more than $370M in federal communications work. They also skew heavily toward incumbents, with Stratacomm, Weber Shandwick, Elevation, and Barbaricum all successfully retaining existing work.
But not every recent award is crossing the finish line quite so cleanly.
Secret Service Recruitment Award Hits a Wall of Protests
We previously reported that the highly anticipated Secret Service recruitment marketing contract had been awarded to Avvy following a competition that attracted 35 total offerors. That award is now suspended.
Award notices went to 34 unsuccessful offerors, and the government subsequently received 10 protests challenging the decision.
With the protests preventing the new contract from moving forward, the Secret Service issued a justification on August 7 for a $20.4M bridge contract to incumbent NCN Technology, extending services through August 5, 2027 to avoid an interruption while the challenges are resolved. Among the protests still pending are challenges from BLN Fors Marsh JV, Argent ARC, Chatham Communications JV, NCN Technology, ECU Communications, FedWriters, and Sensis. Several GAO decisions aren't due until early November.
More Major Decisions Still Ahead
The market is also waiting on several other significant procurements, including the Navy recruitment marketing and advertising contract, currently held by VML.
Taken together, we're seeing an interesting dynamic emerge: federal communications spending is moving, but so is procurement scrutiny.
There are fewer meaningful opportunities in the market, more firms competing for the work that remains, and considerably more at stake with every award decision. That's making incumbents harder to displace—and unsuccessful offerors increasingly willing to challenge the outcome when they believe there are grounds to do so.
The Secret Service competition may be the clearest example yet. Ten protests following a single award is extraordinary and suggests that concerns about the procurement and its outcome extended well beyond any one unsuccessful bidder.
In today's market, an award doesn't necessarily mean the competition is over.