Creative Tenders and Contracts

A creative tender usually covers creative strategy, campaign development, graphic design, video and photography production, and design consultancy for a specific communications need. Contract value varies widely, from a single design job to a multi-year marketing services framework covering several agencies.

Stotles brings together creative tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Much creative work is called off from the Crown Commercial Service Communications Marketplace and multi-supplier agency frameworks, so many briefs reach only agencies already listed.

Creative tenders are scored on the creative response, portfolio, understanding of the audience, process and price. Many buyers appoint agency rosters, so getting onto the roster is the main way into repeat work.

Creative and campaign work must follow the CAP and BCAP advertising codes and respect copyright and consent for images and footage, and public sector digital content must meet accessibility requirements. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for portfolios at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Often, yes. A large share of creative notices are call-offs from marketing services frameworks rather than standalone tenders, with buyers appointing a pool of agencies once and then running mini-competitions or direct call-offs for individual campaigns. A one-off open tender for creative or design work still appears, typically from a body running a single project rather than a rolling programme.

Creative work mostly sits in multi-supplier frameworks split into lots by discipline, such as design, photography, video and copywriting, with agencies appointed once and called off per project. The CCS Communications Marketplace dynamic purchasing system is a common route to creative agencies. Councils, combined authorities, universities and colleges, museums, housing associations and central government departments are the main buyers.

Read communications strategies, campaign calendars, event programmes and framework renewal dates, which show creative work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the communications teams behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

Creative notices most often carry CPV code 79340000 (Advertising and marketing services). Also common are 79341400 (Advertising campaign services), 79822500 (Graphic design services) and 79415200 (Design consultancy services).