Purpose

This report recommends
the award of the contract for the buying of media planning and
buying services to Four Agency Ltd 
within an estimated budget of £653,009 to support the
implementation of the Cheshire and Merseyside All Together
Smokefree (ATSF) Programme for the Champs Public Health
Collaborative (Champs Collaborative) on behalf of the nine
Directors of Public Health in Cheshire and Merseyside and the
Integrated Care Board. This follows the completion of a compliant
competitive tender process.
 
 

Decision

The Director of Public
Health has agreed the award of the contract for the buying of media
planning and buying services to Four Agency Limited within an
estimated budget of £653,009 to support the implementation of
the Cheshire and Merseyside All Together Smoke Free (ATSF)
Programme, as the Most Advantageous Tenderer pursuant to a contract
commencing on 1st December 2025 and ending
31st March 2027.
 

Reasons for the decision

The Council is the lead
authority for the Champs Public Health Collaborative. The
Collaborative is a long-standing formal partnership of Cheshire and
Merseyside’s nine Directors of Public Health, the NHS
Director of Population Health and their teams, serving a population
of 2.7 million people (Champs is the Cheshire and Merseyside Public
Health Collaborative, assisted by the Champs Support Team who are
hosted by the Council).
 
A
Memorandum of Understanding between the Council as lead authority
and the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) is in
place to cover the work of the programmes of activity, which
includes the ATSF programme. That the Champs Support Team is
leading the implementation of the All Together Smokefree programme
on behalf of the Cheshire and Merseyside Public Health
Collaborative.
 
An
integral and significant part of the ATSF programme is engagement
with a media planning and buying provider. A major behaviour change
campaign is needed as a fundamental part of this Smokefree
programme. To ensure effective behaviour change messaging, which
can influence smokers, through well informed research, an effective
media planning and buying provider is required to achieve a
Smokefree 2030 that is fair and equitable for adults and a tobacco
free future for every child in Cheshire and Merseyside.
 
A media-led behaviour
change campaign is one of the most cost-effective ways to deliver
reductions in population level smoking prevalence. Putting in place
an appropriate agency to plan and buy advertising space across
multiple formats targeted to multiple smoking audience demographics
will assure equitable campaign outcomes.
 
The £653,009
ATSF media-buy investment will deliver regional behaviour-change
campaigns designed to increase quit attempts and uptake of
stop-smoking support across Cheshire and Merseyside. Drawing on
national Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Action for
Smoking and Health (ASH) Return on Investment (ROI) modelling, the
campaigns are expected to accelerate the regional decline in
smoking prevalence by around 0.3 percentage points per year,
generating an estimated £6–8 million in local
economic benefit over two years. This represents a strong return
of £7–£9 for every £1 invested,
complementing the high performance of local stop-smoking services
and supporting delivery of the Government’s Smokefree
Generation Grant ambitions.
 
The supplier will be
responsible for the media planning and buying to support the
following Key Performance Indicators PIs, which will be monitored
and reported regularly to ensure performance and return on
investment to achieve:.
 
· 
an agreed minimum percentage increase in visits to the Smoking Ends
Here website, based on existing engagement rates at contract
commencement;.
· 
an agreed, data-led, minimum percentage increase in self-reported
quit attempts pre- and post-initiative;.
· 
an agreed, data-led, minimum percentage increase in smoking support
service access (e.g., community services and stop smoking apps)
pre- and post-initiative; and
· 
an agreed, data-led, minimum percentage point decrease in smoking
prevalence region-wide by the end of the contract.
 
An independent agency
is in the process of being appointed to evaluate the communication
element of this programme which will include this media buying
contract and will assess value for money.
 
Neither the Council
nor the Champs Support Team has the necessary expertise to manage,
plan and deliver media buying for behaviour change campaigns at
scale.
 
 

Alternative options considered

Removal of the media
buying procurement from the programme would result in the behaviour
change campaign, which in itself
involves significant investment, being ineffective due to
the lack of capacity and expertise within the internal team to
effectively plan and execute the media buying channels.
 
Reduction in the
allocated budget for media buying procurement would result in a
direct reduction in activity and therefore impact, again rendering
the campaign less effective and limiting the return on investment
for the development of the campaign itself.
 
Should the media
buying procurement not progress, then there is a reputational risk
for Council as the host authority and for the Directors of Public
Health due to non-delivery. NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB would
also move to recoup this funding from the ATSF programme.