Official UK procurement notice
Provision of Marketing Services
Authority: Luton Sixth Form College (Education)
Luton Sixth Form College is seeking to appoint an experienced and innovative marketing agency to provide strategic and operational marketing services. The successful supplier will act as an extension of the internal team to support the College in achieving its strategic objectives through effective student recruitment activity, brand development, digital marketing, content creation, and campaign management. Crisis communications and reputational support where required. Suppliers must demonstrate strong digital marketing capability, expertise in student recruitment, robust account management arrangements, and appropriate safeguarding, information security and data protection controls.
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionLuton Sixth Form College is seeking to appoint an experienced and innovative marketing agency to provide strategic and operational marketing services. The successful supplier will act as an extension of the internal team to support the College in achieving its strategic objectives through effective student recruitment activity, brand development, digital marketing, content creation, and campaign management.
The scope of services includes, but is not limited to:
Strategic marketing planning, market research, brand development and positioning.
Student recruitment campaigns, including open event marketing, application generation, conversion and enrolment activity.
Digital marketing services, including social media management, paid advertising, SEO, email marketing and content planning.
Creative services, including campaign development, graphic design, print production and promotional materials.
Alumni engagement and communications.
Content creation, including photography, videography, case studies, website content and social media assets.
Campaign reporting, analytics, ROI measurement and performance monitoring.
Crisis communications and reputational support where required.
The College is seeking a supplier with demonstrable experience delivering comparable services within the education sector, public sector or similarly complex organisations. Suppliers must demonstrate strong digital marketing capability, expertise in student recruitment, robust account management arrangements, and appropriate safeguarding, information security and data protection controls.
The proposed contract will commence on 15 January 2027 for an initial term of one year, with the option to extend for up to two further periods of one year each, subject to satisfactory performance and business need. The estimated total contract value across the maximum term is £230,400 excluding VAT.
The contract will be awarded to the supplier submitting the Most Advantageous Tender (MAT), evaluated on the basis of 40% price and 60% quality
- The authority expects to re-tender this requirement around 1 Nov 2029, 23:59 GMT.
CPV: Advertising and marketing services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1RenewalPublished value£230,400
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)
- Quality Requirements: 60%
- Pricing: 40%
Published award criteria (2)
- Pricing
- Quality Requirements
No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.
- Price carries 40 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 4 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
- Turnover usually expected at this size: about £460,800 (twice the annual value).
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula. Turnover is an indicative market norm (≈2× annual value), not a published condition.
Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid
How Luton Sixth Form College buys Advertising and marketing services (CPV 7934), and who usually turns up
Luton Sixth Form College has little published record in this market. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Advertising and marketing services (CPV 7934) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Across this market, small firms won 72% of awards with a known supplier size.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Across this market, 56% of winners were registered in the delivery region.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 45 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Across this market, at least 42% of awarded procurements had no recorded rival.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid18%
2–322%
4–628%
7+32%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Awards below, close to or above the estimate, per lot. The buyer side adds below-threshold contracts with a pre-award estimate; an award inside a published range counts as close.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate20%
Within ±2%66%
Above estimate15%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 7934Published estimate£230k
i
How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 247 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid18%
2–322%
4–628%
7+32%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender and Contracts Finder), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly. Contracts Finder appears in live search, the Retender Radar, contract pages, organisation counts, the earlier contracts and past suppliers on a tender's competition panel, the buyer's decision figure and its award against estimate; the other analytical figures are built from Find a Tender notices.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Open for tender
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Yes · next expected 1 Nov 2029
- First published
- 6 Nov 2026, 11:34 GMT
- Last source update
- 6 Nov 2026, 11:34 GMT
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 8 Jan 2027
- Authority reference
LSFC/MKT/2027/001- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-105624- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07b645Find a Tender
How to participate & submission route
Official notice Submit via portal- Requests to participate (first stage)
- —
- Tender submission deadline
- 11 Dec 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Clarification deadline
- 20 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Completed tender submissions must be returned electronically via email to [email protected] no later than the stated deadline.
Timeline
6 Nov 2026 → 15 Jan 2027 · 5 dates- Tender notice published4 days ago6 Nov 2026, 11:34 GMT
- Today10 Nov 2026
- Clarification questions byin 9 days20 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Submission deadlinein 30 days11 Dec 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Award decision expected byin 59 days8 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 65 days15 Jan 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Tender notice published6 Nov 2026, 11:34 GMTUK4
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Nothing awarded yet- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Bidding documents and specifications https://lutonsfc-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/personal/acb_lutonsfc_ac_uk/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=/personal/acb_lutonsfc_ac_uk/Documents/Procurement/Marketing Services LSFC 2027&share=cgrrIIS1pHv1R5RGnsW9PO5UEgUCU8NgmoTCajTFLR2iSqQieQ
Notices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender