M&A, RFIs and Major Recompetes: What We're Seeing Across the Federal Market
There's a lot moving across the federal marketing and communications market right now.
Major recompetes are in proposal. We're seeing continued M&A activity. And perhaps most interestingly, we're seeing more evidence of why engaging early in the procurement process, particularly through RFIs, matters.
A few updates and observations from the past week:
First, Thank You
Last week, GrowthLab had the opportunity to present at the Society for Health Communication Annual Summit in Boston on what we're seeing across the health communications marketplace and how organizations are adapting to funding disruptions, tighter budgets and shifting priorities.
A big thank you to the Society for having us—and to everyone who completed the survey we circulated ahead of the Summit. We had a great turnout and discussion, and the survey results gave us some fascinating insights into how firms, nonprofits and others across the health communications community are responding to the current environment.
We're working on a webinar to share the broader findings with the industry. More on that soon.
And if you haven't already participated, we'd still welcome your perspective as we finalize the results by completing this quick form.
M&A Activity Continues
We've talked quite a bit over the past year about increasing M&A activity across the government marketing and communications sector. That trend continues.
Most recently, DCG announced its merger with Urban Emu, bringing together DCG's communications and research capabilities with Urban Emu's digital, technology and AI capabilities.
It's another example of something we've been seeing across the market: firms aren't necessarily acquiring simply to get bigger. They're looking for ways to add capabilities, customers, contract access and market position faster than they could build them organically.
In a market where organic growth has become considerably harder, M&A is increasingly becoming part of the growth strategy.
Another Reminder: Respond to the RFI
We've said this before, but it continues to be reinforced: if an RFI matters to your business, respond to it.
RFIs aren't simply information-gathering exercises. They can help determine whether an opportunity is full and open or set aside, what vehicle it ultimately runs through, how the scope is structured and, in some cases, who gets an opportunity to compete.
TSA recruitment is one recent example we're watching.
The opportunity went through market research earlier this year. More recently, the next stage of the procurement was distributed to a limited group of small businesses rather than released broadly through SAM.gov.
For firms that wait for the RFP to begin paying attention, that can mean waiting until many of the most important acquisition decisions have already been made.
Major Recompetes Are Hitting the Street
We're also in the middle of several significant recompetes.
CDC's Tips From Former Smokers program, currently held by PlowShare, is deep into the proposal process following the acquisition-strategy changes we wrote about last month.
DHS/CBP's Trusted Traveler Programs marketing recompete is also due this week.
And there are plenty more behind them.
After a year characterized by fewer opportunities, delays and considerable uncertainty, we're finally seeing a number of long-anticipated incumbent contracts make their way back into competition.
That doesn't necessarily mean the federal communications market is back to normal. Far from it.
But between major recompetes moving, increased M&A activity and new requirements beginning to emerge from market research, there's considerably more happening beneath the surface than there was even a few months ago.