Signs of Movement (and Cause for Optimism) Across Federal Marketing: HHS, DoD, and DHS
With spring arriving, we’re also starting to see a renewed sense of movement in the federal marketing and communications market—particularly across three agencies that have historically been among the largest buyers of marketing services: HHS, DoD, and DHS.
A few developments worth noting:
HHS — Signs of Life After a Quiet Year
After significant pullback across HHS communications programs over the past year, we’re beginning to see some activity return to market. Last week, three CDC RFPs were released, each supporting major public health communications initiatives and each being procured through the GSA MAS. These programs were previously supported under the CDC Health Marketing BPA:
Screen for Life: Colorectal Cancer Awareness
Inside Knowledge: Gynecologic Cancer Awareness
Bring Your Brave: Young Women's Breast Cancer Campaign
While the long-term future of the CDC Health Marketing BPA remains uncertain, the fact that these programs are moving forward—and through MAS rather than the BPA—signals that program offices are still advancing critical health communications work using alternative acquisition paths.
We are also beginning to see recompetes of existing task orders on the CMS NEC IDIQ, along with early indications that task orders may soon begin flowing for PICS III awardees.
Taken together, these are encouraging signals after a relatively slow period across HHS communications work.
Department of Defense — Recruitment Marketing Under Review
Across DoD, there are increasing indications that recruitment marketing programs may be entering a period of structural rethinking.
Last week, the Army released a Sources Sought / RFI for its future marketing and advertising program, signaling that the service is evaluating whether to maintain a single-provider model—currently held by Omnicom’s DDB—or potentially divide the program into multiple components.
This mirrors discussions happening elsewhere across the services.
As many of us heard firsthand at the Air Force Industry Day in San Antonio last year, the Air Force has been evaluating similar options for its $1B+ recruitment marketing program, currently held by Omnicom’s GSD&M team—either continuing with a single-provider structure or splitting the requirement into specialized components.
Taken together, these signals suggest DoD may be reassessing how large-scale recruitment marketing programs are structured across the services.
Department of Homeland Security — Potential Procurement Reset
Finally, DHS may also be entering a period of change.
Many in the industry followed last year’s direct award of a multi-hundred-million-dollar advertising campaign, despite the contractor having limited experience executing national campaigns or working in the federal marketing space.
That decision became a major topic during last week’s Congressional testimony involving the soon-to-be departing Secretary, where procurement oversight and acquisition approach were openly discussed.
As a result, there is growing speculation that DHS could revert back toward more fair and more traditional competitive procurements.
Bottom Line
Across HHS, DoD, and DHS, we’re seeing early signals that several major buyers are re-engaging the market at the same time.
While the federal landscape always carries uncertainty, these developments suggest momentum and a sense of optimism. We’ll continue monitoring developments closely and share updates as the landscape evolves.