What a $300k marketing RFP looks like in Kenya

I was lucky to put out an RFP valued at $300K in East Africa. We had 23 responses, of which 13 ended up submitting a proposal

9 min readApr 28, 2023

This guide/overview will detail what we received and how I felt that applicants could have improved. This article has sections split in two; the first is what we received, followed by how I would improve on it. If you are in a rush, you can read the below paragraph and scroll to the bottom, where there is a quick summary.

What the RFP contained and requested:

Provided geographies of interest and asked if the agency could manage those regions
Provided services needed: Content creation, media planning, launch strategy for digital and some outdoor media
Clearly outlined what the business objectives were
Laid out monthly expectations in terms of reports and work to be done
Defined the total budget available

Only 3/13 (23%) of the agencies responded to every listed item. It seemed that most applicants omitted one of the asks (either by mistake or just that they were in a rush). Personally, this was not in anyone’s favour, and so, we did our best to look at the creativity and overall solution the proposal was trying to achieve regardless of the items missing.

Budgets and Media Commission:

The ask was for a full-service company to come in and manage the creative, messaging, and channel strategy of the brand. There was also the additional ask of a launch strategy. This requires a team that understands marketing/sales principles and can work together.

The smallest fee we got was just $3,000 monthly (pm), with the highest being $10,000pm. The average, rounded down, was $6,000pm. Only two agencies laid out the hours per job function, how many were required, and what the end result would be for. The rest gave a price per category (Strategy, media, content etc.). The problem with the latter is that it can be opened up to interpretation i.e. I can demand more hours from you as you have not specified how much labour is in those categories.

My advice is to show, on a table (below), how many hours the agency needs for each task. This way, the applicant opens themselves up to the possibility of negotiation and can bill for more hours in the future.

On average, media commissions are between 12–20%. In other words, for every dollar you give, they take x%. This scales really well for the agency when you spend high volumes like $100K in a year. I get the reasoning behind this model — the more you spend, the more time is spent on reports, work hours, and the like. However, what I would like to see is the % decrease with the more you spend (graph below). Additionally, the more prominent agencies most likely have an incentive structure with the major publishers that enables them to make money off your media spend. So when I worked with Twitter we awarded an agency with up to 7–10% on $500,000 (That’s $50,000!). Even the smaller ones would earn 5% on $200,000 ($10,000).

Research

This really was a mixed bag of results. I wish I could say that as an average, there was some similarity, but everyone presented something different. Firstly, no one should copy and paste a research slide from another document. Also, no one should expect someone to read 500+ words on the said slide.

Things that make a lot of sense are concise sentences that show that the reader knows you did research. For example, “East Africa still struggles with cash payments, but mobile money adoption has increased by X through the efforts of Y”. This should then flow naturally into the target audience and inform how they were created/selected.

The presentation of these facts also needs to be ordered and self-explanatory. It should aim to teach but also display that you as the agency know exactly what you are talking about. So, for example, presenting the picture of someone with a few statements is not how this looks. Nor is copying and pasting a slide from a research document on the typical digital consumer.

What is convincing is the following (shout out to the two agencies that did this):

Structure and presentation of the proposal:

6/13 (46%) of the applicants included a plan/agenda — which was frustrating as we had no idea what to expect. However, as it is a creative exercise, we did expect a narrative to be carved. In other words, the slides would flow into one another without any issue (only one agency pulled this off).

So if you can flow or need an agenda to flow to, here is the structure I would recommend:

Introduction (if you need to, add brands you have worked with)
The customer and environment (research)
Competitors (how your brand stacks up)
Brand planning/strategy (jobs to be done, campaigns)
Creatives (the execution)
Communications (how it’s delivered)
Media plan (How it’s financed and placed)

With the average proposal being 70 pages long, you want to take the reader on a journey. You do not want them to (like I did) read 100 pages, of which 65% is about the team, and the rest is a poor attempt at answering the RFP.

Lastly, make sure your slides all match in style, layout, font, text size, and nothing looks like it was ‘bolted on’. I had many examples where slides looked pasted in and did not match the initial cadence of the proposal or what came after. So in summary:

If you have page numbers, make sure they are in order and nothing is skipped. In addition, don’t cover them with images or text
Text size and font need to be consistent between slides
If you use a phone or social media platform UIX to show your creatives, make sure it matches that platform today (not four years ago). I had a few agencies use outdated logos and the wrong UIX. This disqualified them immediately.
If you use images of people, make sure they match the target audience.
If you use any images, please make sure they are not pixelated.
There is something distasteful about stock photography that has watermarks over it. Invest in 50 images that you use for RFPs. Get a creative to make your decks as well. Salespeople and founders eventually lose touch and get lazy (trust me on this one).
Put all the slides/info into one deck. We had one agency send two campaigns ideas in separate decks. What then happens is that the formats don’t match, and it’s just messy.

At the very least, make sure each slide matches in style to the former one, for example, below:

Creatives

9/13 (69%) of applicants submitted creative renders of what they could do with our brand name. Some went as far as to submit scripts for radio and TV, and even create corporate gift examples. To be clear, this is a good thing, but to get it right, do the following:

Ask for a branding guide, and if you cannot get this, see what the brand is doing on social
If there is no activity online, shine with what you know or what look-a-like competitors are up to
Create a render for the mediums in question (social, TVC, outdoor etc)

I would also like to add that no one should be putting so much time into this to formulate a tangible strategy. Things I would not do:

Scripts for TVCs or radio adverts.
Corporate gifting/branding. There is so much in this area that you will do too much or not get it right (umbrellas or Towels, or just a bottle, or maybe a sticker?)
Please don’t change brand colours (the logo and website is usually a good reference). Two agencies did this.
Creative that requires a lot of explaining — don’t create extra work for yourself.

What really made an impact was an agency’s ability to smoothly transition from their strategic approach (again, not actual strategy) to complementary content. You want to showcase that you can do better, not that it’s your best work.

Privacy/NDAs

Only 6 (46%) of the proposals have clauses about privacy. If you think about it, I had access to about 25+ ideas about content, media planning, research, and even strategy. Whilst it is super unethical to use these for my own purposes, there is not much stopping me.

There have been murmurs about this issue with job applications where candidates make it to the final round to do an assignment that requires creative thinking and planning. The candidates all come up with great ideas that they later find being used even though they did not get the job.

To prevent this (to an extent), agencies (and candidates for the above discussion) should note that ideas are confidential and not transferred to the brand in question. You could go further and ask the brand to sign a one-pager that is binding.

Understand who you are talking to

Research who is asking for the RFP, and the likely team to be involved. Gauge their experience level and set your proposal in the same manner. For example, don’t go into the history of branding (1 agency did this) and what a brand is with seasoned individuals. In addition, don’t make too many claims about your research results when the research is a one-pager with one reference — you are not an expert. This point is super important as the brand asking for the RFP knows their market backwards,

The applicant needs to show that they are the pro’s with driving scale through effective and strategic placement of communication to grow a brand/user numbers.

Summary points (for those in a rush):

The smallest submission was 43 pages, with the largest being 190 — with an average of 78 pages per submission.
Only 6 (46%) of the proposals have clauses about privacy.
Only 3/13 (23%) of the agencies responded to every item that was listed.
6/13 (46%) of the applicants included an agenda.
The smallest team was a five-person group (hustlers), and the largest was an international agency with 1000s of people in Africa and offices in almost every country. For the most part, the average size of an agency was around 40–60 people.
The majority of submissions were from Kenya, with three being from Uganda.
The smallest fee we got was just $3,000 per month (pm), with the highest being $10,000pm. The average, rounded down, was $6,000pm
9/13 (69%) of applicants submitted creative renders of what they could do with our brand name.
On average, media commissions are between 12–20%.
Two applications pushed their own buying platforms so much that we thought they had applied to something else or got files mixed up.
One application had 65% of the deck filled with work examples and their team (1-page bios per executive), which made this more about them than us.
One Agency went too deep and rendered swag ideas too, which is not bad at all, but it’s not the ask. The same agency forgot to add the target audience market.
1 Agency called me and asked to discuss the proposal to see if it was a fit for them — I respected this.
5 Agencies (38%) emailed and asked clarifying questions — this was a good move as sometimes what is written is not read the same way. I would have liked to have seen all agencies do this.

Closing thoughts:

The proposal you submit is a pitch that must impress the reader and clearly communicate your thoughts. Unfortunately, when you email a submission, you don’t have a salesperson to clarify sentences, nor do you benefit from using your energy to add colour to the page. With this in mind, ensure that there are no distractions (pixelated images, too much text) and that it does not take longer than 10 minutes to read. Attach a 30–60sec video to your email explaining top-line items. It would set the scene for the reader and make the approach much warmer.

Lastly, make sure you follow the instructions of the RFP and if something is not clear, ask clarifying questions.

Need help?

Since I first started working with African brands, selling Twitter and introducing Snap/Verizon/Spotify in 2017, the calibre of work has improved massively. Even with all my criticisms, I see the value in each of these agencies and the power they all have. If you want advice on whom to appoint and how to structure an RFP/Proposal submission, let me know in the comments or @AdrianTweetSki. I would be happy to help!

I hope you found this guide/article useful.