Settle these five things before you write anything
Most weak RFPs are weak because they were issued before the internal decisions were made. Agencies then compete on interpretation rather than approach, and the responses become impossible to compare side by side.
- The objective, in one sentence. Not 'increase awareness' — what has to be different afterwards, and for whom.
- The budget range. Withholding it does not get a better price; it gets four proposals scoped at four different scales.
- The decision makers: who signs, who can veto, and who must be in the pitch.
- The non-negotiables: dates, territories, brand rules, procurement requirements, compliance constraints.
- What you will supply: assets, data, internal resource, incumbent suppliers that must be used.
The ten-section brief template
If a section genuinely does not apply, say so rather than deleting it, so agencies know it was considered rather than forgotten.
- 1. Background — the business, the brand, and why this programme exists now.
- 2. Objective and success measures — the one-sentence objective and the two or three measures you will judge it by.
- 3. Audience — who you need in the room, and what they currently think.
- 4. Scope — formats, number of events or locations, territories, dates and fixed moments.
- 5. Budget — a range, and what it must cover: creative, build, production, staffing, logistics, measurement.
- 6. Deliverables — what you expect to receive, including the reporting.
- 7. Mandatories and constraints — brand guidelines, legal, compliance, sustainability, incumbent suppliers.
- 8. Response requirements — format, page limit, who must attend the pitch, and what you explicitly do not want.
- 9. Evaluation criteria and weightings — published in the brief, not decided afterwards.
- 10. Timeline — issue, questions deadline, response deadline, pitch dates, decision date, start date.
Score independently, then discuss the variances
Publish the weightings with the brief. It improves the responses and it protects the decision internally. Panel members should score alone before meeting, and the conversation should focus on where the scores disagree — that is where the real information sits.
- Strategic understanding — 25%. Have they understood the audience, or restated your brief back to you?
- Creative approach — 20%. Is the idea ownable, deliverable within budget, and right for the audience rather than the awards circuit?
- Delivery capability — 25%. What is in house, who is actually on site, and what have those specific people delivered?
- Commercials — 20%. Itemised and comparable, with assumptions stated and change-control terms clear.
- Measurement and reporting — 10%. Does what you receive afterwards answer the questions finance will ask?
The five questions that separate a shortlist
At this level the capability decks look identical. These do not produce identical answers, and they predict how the programme will feel in month four.
- Name the producer and technical lead who would run this, and their last three comparable projects.
- Which elements of this specific scope are delivered in house, and which are subcontracted?
- How is a scope change at five days out priced, and who approves it without escalation?
- Show us a real post-event report from a comparable programme, redacted as needed.
- Tell us about a programme that went wrong and what you changed as a result.
A realistic five-week timeline
Compressing this does not speed up the programme; it just moves the problems past the signature.
- Week 0: issue the brief to three to five agencies. More than five wastes everyone's time, including yours.
- Week 1: written questions deadline, with all answers circulated to all agencies.
- Weeks 2–3: responses due. One week produces recycled pitch material.
- Week 4: pitches, with the delivery team present rather than only new business.
- Week 5: scoring, references and decision — with proper feedback to the unsuccessful agencies.
Common mistakes
Every one of these is recoverable, but each costs a fortnight and some goodwill.
- Inviting eight agencies: response quality falls with the odds of winning.
- Asking for free creative execution at stage one: you get pitch theatre, not delivery capability.
- Hiding the budget, which guarantees non-comparable proposals.
- Scoring after the pitch, so the panel scores the room rather than the response.
- Meeting the delivery team for the first time after signature.
- No change-control terms, so the first scope change becomes a negotiation.
Indicative budget bands
Ranges, not quotes. Every brief is scoped and itemised before you commit.
- £25k – £75k
- A single activation, pop-up or sampling programme with full staffing.
- £75k – £250k
- A flagship event, a multi-city activation sequence or a conference.
- £250k+
- A launch programme, a season of sponsorship activations, or an annual portfolio.