Federal Marketing Awards to Close Out FY26

Today marks the end of FY26.

And, as anyone who has spent time in the federal market knows, September 30 is rarely a quiet day.

Agencies are working to get final obligations out the door, contracts are being signed, and awards made today — or even over the past several days — may not become publicly visible until later this week.

So consider this our first look at the FY26 finish line, rather than the final tally.

Here’s a sampling of marketing, communications, research and digital awards that have come through over the past few weeks:

  • Red Carrot secured two significant wins to close out the fiscal year: a $24M TSA contract for Talent Acquisition Marketing Services, beating out 11 other bidders, and a $4.2M HHS Administration for Children and Families contract supporting its Adolescent Development Products campaign, beating out four other bidders.

  • Fors Marsh Group secured several HHS awards, including a $13M contract at CDC for an Overdose Media Campaign and a $241K award at the National Institute of Nursing Research for website maintenance, development and enhancement, SEO, web security and Section 508 compliance.

  • Arrow ARC, the joint venture between Artemis ARC and Aptive Resources, secured two recent DHS wins: a $7.8M CBP Trusted Traveler Program Marketing Support Services contract, beating out nine other bidders and taking the account from incumbent Elevation; and a $937K CISA communications support contract focused on enhancing state, local, tribal and territorial critical infrastructure and cybersecurity resilience. 

  • Blackberg Group secured a $5M U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services contract for strategic outreach communications and multimedia services. The award has a potential period of performance through September 2030.

  • The District Communications Group (DCG) secured a $4.2M contract at the VA for MHV Web Content Development and Management Support and an $829K contract at DHS for Office of Public Affairs Communication Support Services.

  • Vivo360 won a $3.3M contract at CDC for Diabetes Health Marketing and Communication Support Services.

  • Aptive Resources secured a $3.1M VA contract for Homeless Veterans Outreach Services.

  • Marketing for Change secured a $1.5M contract at CMS for research to gather insights from Medicare target audiences impacted by programs and initiatives designed to help people get and stay healthy.

  • IQ Solutions won a $1M contract for OPTN Website Operations, Migration and Modernization Support.

  • HCN Global secured a $762K HHS contract for Media Outreach.

  • TechPride-JPI JV received a $257K Coast Guard award for Strategic Communications.

And some of the big ones are starting to move.

We’ve been closely tracking several of the larger, fully competed marketing accounts that remained unresolved heading into fiscal year-end.

CDC Tips From Former Smokers has reached an award decision. Given how recent the decision is, we’re going to let the ink dry before reporting the result. More on that soon.

Even with awards continuing to roll in, several other significant competitions remain unresolved: 

  • Navy Recruiting Marketing & Advertising: the major recruiting account currently held by WPP’s VML. The recompete covers a broad recruiting marketing ecosystem spanning creative, media, research, digital, social, field marketing and lead generation. 

  • CISA External Affairs: the communications account currently held by LMD Agency

  • CBP Office of Public Affairs BPA: the significant communications account currently held by Elevation.

And then there’s Secret Service National Recruitment Advertising. The agency initially selected Avvy earlier this year, triggering a series of protests. Those protests have since cleared, but the competition isn't finished: the agency has agreed to take corrective action and rescore several proposals.

So, even as FY26 officially closes today, there is still consequential marketing and communications business left to be resolved.

A couple of things stand out. 

  • Public health continues to move. The awards above include significant activity across CDC, CMS, NIH and broader HHS, spanning paid media, health marketing, audience research, digital engagement and communications.

  • GSA MAS continues to play an outsized role. The majority of the awards in this roundup moved through the Multiple Award Schedule — spanning health communications, advertising, public affairs, strategic communications and outreach.

We’ve been talking about the growing importance of MAS for some time, and the year-end activity continues to reinforce it: being on the right vehicles — or having the right partners who are — matters.

And FY26 isn't quite finished showing us what happened.

September 30 may officially close the fiscal year, but it won't close the books on what happened during the final spending push. We expect additional marketing and communications awards made today — as well as other late-year awards that haven't yet surfaced publicly — to show up over the next several days.

Be on the lookout for next week’s GrowthLab email. We’ll round up what surfaces from the final year-end spending push, along with any movement on the larger competitions we’re continuing to watch.

Happy Federal New Year.

Mike KapetanovicMarketing Communications, Professional Services