Met Police calls a review of its advertising business
The Metropolitan Police Authority has called a statutory review of its advertising account. The account has been handled by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy since 2004.
It is understood that MCBD will repitch for the account, which will cover advertising and below-the-line activity over the next five years.
A tender has been issued for the review, which is being led by The Met’s procurement department, but will involve marketers and managers from across the force.
The review comes just weeks after new Mayor of London Boris Johnson pledged to cut the ad budgets of Transport for London and the Met, in a bid to fund his plans for more police on the street (MW May 8).
The account includes handling all advertising services required by its Directorate of Public Affairs (DPA), including crime prevention marketing, and campaigns across issues such as drugs, terrorism, gun crime, hate crime, domestic violence and street crime.
It will not include recruitment advertising or media planning and buying, which is handled by Mediacom and was reviewed last year.
The directorate says that agencies must be able to demonstrate an “ability to target and communicate with hard-to-reach groups”, and that pan-London and broadcast campaigns will be limited “to avoid raising fear of crime”.
MCBD has worked across a number of high-profile campaigns, such as Operation Trident, which aims to combat gun crime in the Capital, and Knife City, aimed at discouraging teens from carrying knives.
