The NWDA kicked off its drive to recruit specialist agencies earlier this year with a view to making its appointments at the beginning of May.

However, it appears as if this procedure – as is often the case in sizable public sector tender processes – was delayed somewhat, with the results being supplied to How-Do just yesterday.

In its drive to get the best teams for specific tasks the NWDA has split the panel into lots for the first time.

At this point only the agencies on lots two, three and four have been decided (those lots being digital marketing agencies, interactive agencies and SEO and PPC marketing firms).

The successful companies across those lots are; Latitude, Code Computerlove, Mando, Creative Lynx, Elevator Digital, Reading Room, Rippleffect, JBA (from Skipton) and Ellesmere Port’s MSoft.

New media to push old favourites

Rippleffect, Reading Room and Elevator have essentially kept their places on the panel, having been retained suppliers prior to the pitch process.

Speaking to How-Do at the start of the recruitment procedure, a spokesperson for the NWDA admitted that “more and more of our marketing (is) moving online, especially within the area of tourism.”

Bearing this in mind the battle to get on to the e-media panel was believed to be hard-fought, although at the time of writing it was unclear exactly how many agencies applied for the task.

Those in place now will be retained for three years, with an option to extend to four.

Did you enjoy this article? Please share it!

Comments (7)

4  By Martin Cozens , on 27-06-2008 07:14 Hi. I am from one of the appointed agencies, Latitude. We are based in Warrington and have been for 7 years. In fact our offices are now located on the same business park as the Agency.    We entered this pitch because we felt that the NWDA's approach to the E-Media Panel was regionally-focused and that we could add value to local businesses through Search Marketing as more and more SMEs are looking for competitive advantage within their local markets.    We are looking forward to working alongside the other successful panellists who are locally based such as Mando (Liverpool), Code (Manchester), Ripple (Liverpool), Creative Lynx (Manchester) and so on to offer collaborative online advice and support to the region's commercial community. Report