Official UK procurement notice
Creative Advertising Agency — UK public procurement notice
Authority: AFFINITY WATER LIMITED
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionServices relating to advertising creative including:
• Brand narrative, strategy and planning
• Brand positioning and architecture
• Advertising creative
• Advertising production (TV and radio)
• Digital content and video production
• Social media advertising
• Behaviour change
We are looking to appoint a lead creative advertising partner to act as the creative custodian of our existing 'Keep Life Flowing' campaign, protecting its established visual identity, tone of voice, brand principles, campaign purpose and existing creative equity, while evolving the platform to support Affinity Water's future water saving and behaviour change objectives. The focus will be on evolution rather than reinvention, ensuring Keep Life Flowing remains recognisable while becoming more flexible and responsive to changing weather and water resource conditions.
The successful supplier will be expected to evolve, protect and activate the existing Keep Life Flowing platform, helping us deliver stretching water reduction targets through high quality, responsive creative.
How the procedure runs: Selection questionnaire (SQ) submissions will be scored in accordance with the criteria defined in the SQ documentation. Suppliers that are shortlisted will be invited to submit a proposal in response to the invitation to tender (ITT). Tender submissions will be evaluated and clarification meetings conducted (virtually or in person). more…
Affinity Water may negotiate with tenderers and/or request best and final offers (BAFO). The successful tenderer will be awarded the agreement according to the percentage weightings and criteria set out in the ITT.
CPV: Advertising and marketing services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1Lot 1RenewalPublished value£3,200,000
- Value
- £3,200,000 exc. VAT · £3,840,000 inc. VAT
- Extensions
- Contract term is three years, with the option to extend for up to a further five years.
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published — the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (2)
- Technical — 50%
- Commercial — 50%
No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.
Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid
Advertising and marketing services (CPV 7934) in North East England — and who usually turns up
AFFINITY WATER LIMITED has too little published record in this market to describe on its own; the North East England market stands beside whatever it has. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Advertising and marketing services (CPV 7934) →
How the contest usually goes
Left: this authority. Right: the market where the work is delivered. Bids and award-vs-estimate pairs are per lot, from contested contracts only — direct awards (including PA 2023 transparency notices) report one bid by definition and are left out. On Procurement Act 2023 notices the count is the tenders assessed at the final stage, not every submission received; pairs compare like with like (VAT-exclusive, or VAT-inclusive on both sides). Empty means nothing was published, not filled in from elsewhere.
AFFINITY WATER LIMITED
contract notices in 36 months: 3 in CPV 7934 · 3 in division 79 · 11 in all categories (1 route not published)
i
How many companies usually bid for work like this.
Middle value of published bid counts, one per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in all categories, last 36 months: 1 lots. All 1 lots are from older notices, which count bids received. Small sample.
Nothing is filled in from UK-wide numbers. An empty tile means nothing usable was published.
i
How often only one company bid.
Share of lots that received exactly one bid, on the same competitions as the bids figure.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in all categories, last 36 months: 1 lots. Small sample.
High means a thin market or an incumbent that is hard to beat.
i
Do awards for work like this land above or below the estimate.
Estimate against award per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 1 pairs. Small sample.
A past pattern, not a price to bid.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 1 notices. Small sample.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
i
How often this buyer changes a notice after publishing it.
Middle number of amendments per notice. Deadline extensions and corrections both count.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in all categories, last 24 months: 18 notices.
i
How often this buyer awards without a competition.
Direct or limited awards as a share of its notices that say which procedure was used. These routes are legal in defined cases. This is just the record.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 3 notices.
North East England · Advertising and marketing services (CPV 7934)
contract notices delivered in North East England in 36 months: 62 in CPV 7934 (39 competed, 14 route not published) · 595 in division 79 (374 competed, 107 route not published)
i
How many companies usually bid for work like this.
Middle value of published bid counts, one per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 23 lots. 18 lots are from Procurement Act 2023 notices (bids assessed, middle 4) and 5 from older notices (bids received, middle 5).
Nothing is filled in from UK-wide numbers. An empty tile means nothing usable was published.
i
How often only one company bid.
Share of lots that received exactly one bid, on the same competitions as the bids figure.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 23 lots.
High means a thin market or an incumbent that is hard to beat.
i
Do awards for work like this land above or below the estimate.
Estimate against award per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 12 pairs.
A past pattern, not a price to bid.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 20 notices.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
i
How much of this market goes to small and medium firms.
SME bidders where buyers published the split, otherwise SME winners.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 20 lots.
i
How much work like this goes to companies based in the delivery region.
Awards in this category delivered here where the winner’s registered address is in the region.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7934), last 36 months: 32 awards.
Registered address, so a national firm with a local branch counts as outside.
i
Where this tender’s estimate would land if the usual pattern repeats.
We apply the buyer’s usual movement between estimate and award (or the region’s) to the estimate on this notice.
Based on the North East England market’s usual movement over 12 lots (CPV 7934), applied to the £3,200,000 estimate on this notice. The range comes from the region’s middle half.
A benchmark, not a price to bid.
Coverage and what to read with care
- Each tile explains itself. The on a figure says what it is, how it is counted and which scope this notice’s own record came from (class, division, all categories, or the authority’s 24-month row). The two columns are never blended and nothing is filled from a UK-wide figure; an empty tile means the source published nothing usable. Long form: Methodology.
- Coverage. Roughly 40 % of notices publish a bid count; about half publish an ITL1 delivery location, so the market column reads the authority’s registered region when the notice has none (labelled). About 30 % of award-vs-estimate pairs are exact matches — the buyer published the award at the estimate. n is on every figure; a thin sample is muted, never hidden.
- “Match” and “relevance” are model scores from the nightly matcher, not published facts. Find a Tender does not publish who is bidding. Never shown: contact details, payment behaviour, or a recommended price.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Open for expressions of interest
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Utilities
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 1 Oct 2026, 14:17 BST
- Last source update
- 1 Oct 2026, 14:17 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end — 31 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Authority reference
C-04500- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-077eb5Find a Tender
- How it runs
Selection questionnaire (SQ) submissions will be scored in accordance with the criteria defined in the SQ documentation. Suppliers that are shortlisted will be invited to submit a proposal in response to the invitation to tender (ITT). Tender submissions will be evaluated and clarification meetings conducted (virtually or in person). Affinity Water may negotiate with tenderers and/or request best and final offers more…
(BAFO). The successful tenderer will be awarded the agreement according to the percentage weightings and criteria set out in the ITT.
How to participate & submission route
Official notice Submit via portal- Expression of interest (EOI)
- 2 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Tender submission deadline
- 2 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Clarification deadline
- —
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Please note that this procurement process will be conducted electronically. All documents and communications will be managed through the Affinity Water e-tendering portal called 'In-tend'. If you are interested in this opportunity, please follow the steps below by 09.00am on Friday 16th October 2026. 1 - Register on our e-procurement portal In-tend (located here: https://in tendhost.co.uk/affinitywater ). 2 - Send an email to [email protected] to confirm: more…
i) that your company intends to participate in this process ii) that you have registered your company on In-tend (please use reference 'C-04500' in the title of the email). Selection questionnaire (SQ) documents will be issued on In-tend, to registered suppliers, on Friday 16th October. The deadline for SQ submissions on In-tend will be 12.00 midday on Monday 2nd November 2026.Timeline
5 published dates · Europe/London- Tender notice publishedjust passed1 Oct 2026, 14:17 BST
- Expressions of interest byin 32 days2 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Submission deadlinein 32 days2 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Award decision expected byin 91 days31 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 150 days1 Mar 2027, 00:00 GMT
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Nothing awarded yet- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Tender notice published1 Oct 2026, 14:17 BSTUK4
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Conflict of interest declarationNot published
Notices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender