Last week, the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia (FMBA) summed up the results of an unusual tender to promote blood donor behaviour, Slon.ru reports.

At first, advertising experts were surprised at how unpretentiously such a large tender (350 million rubles declared prize fund) was announced. In May, a few days before the first results were published, the Federal Antimonopoly Agency found that the host violated a number of provisions of Federal Law 94 ‘Tendering Procedure’, and the tender was suspended until all all errors are corrected.

On July 21, the results of two of the three tenders were finally announced: one large, to place advertising materials on the TV, radio and the Web (worth 190 million rubles), the other less conspicuous, for creative design (31 million rubles). The latter was awarded to Znamenka agency that works with M. Video and Heineken and has cooperation experience with the Healthcare Ministry for promotion of healthier lifestyle, Slon.ru writes. But a huge advertising agency contract was awarded to an obscure company that employs only five persons. Slon.ru failed to find any person who has ever heard of InterAviaMedia agency that stole the contract from such advertising giant as Publicis Groupe Media Eurasia.

No information is available about the company’s clients: this page of the agency’s website was being reconstructed. As it transpired, the main criterion of FMBA selection was ‘deadlines’: their readiness to present the project plan shortly after signing the contract. That’s how they got 60 points out of 100. Quality of the offer was only worth 20 points (legislated minimum), just as much as the final assessment of the cost of works.

InterAviaMedia got the lowest result among all bidders for its offered quality, and it charged close to the maximum amount, but promised to present the project package in an hour, says Slon.ru. Publicis Groupe Media Eurasia, recognized as ‘bidder with second-best price offer’ (the holding company asked 195 million rubles for the project), requested ‘four days’.

Slon.ru failed to get any comment from InterAviaMedia CEO Maxim Bondarchuk. According to his assistant, the company employs five staff in addition to the boss, including a messenger, and none of them were authorized to speak with the press.

The recent 10 years saw the number of donors in the country drop from 4 million to 1.8 million, which means that there are only 13-14 donors for each thousand patients, the universally accepted standard figure being at least 40. And Russian advertisers are still unskilled in promoting donor services, Slon.ru believes. Last year’s video series ‘Blood Service’ by SPN Ogilvy baffled experts: the advertising campaign under the motto ‘Give Your Blood and Be a Hero’ was addressed to the absolute minority of potential donors: polling shows that just 8% donate their blood to get distinction and recognition.

Source: www.sostav.ru