BBC tenders: what to expect

Winning BBC tenders can be a challenge if you’re not familiar with tendering practices. Supplying to the BBC is rife with competition and you should want your bid to stand out from the crowd.

The BBC have five top priorities when it comes to suppliers and procurement. It’s worth bearing in mind that their strategic priorities include:

Supporting the supply of distinctive, British ideas to the BBC from across the UK.
Strengthening production ecologies, talent and the creative pipeline outside London.
Maintaining a range of supply in the UK enabling smaller producers to not only survive but grow.
Strengthening progress on diversity and representation both on and off-screen.
Strengthening progress towards environmentally sustainable production in the UK.

3 things to bear in mind when applying for BBC tenders

Various methods of procurement

Open tendering procedure

BBC tenders may also be an open tendering procedure. This often involves an invitation to tender, known as an ITT. An ITT will usually include the following:

Specification of requirement
Service level agreement
Commercial, operational, corporate social responsibility
Pricing schedule.

Restricted procedure

A restricted tendering procedure will feature a two-stage bidding process. It will first have an initial pre-qualification questionnaire, known as a PQQ or SQ. This is a pass/fail stage and is often used when more complex goods or services are being procured. It’s to ensure potential suppliers meet a minimum eligibility criterion and have the necessary ability to fulfil the contract. After a supplier passes the PQQ or SQ, they will then receive an ITT.

Framework agreements

BBC tenders are often procured via framework agreements. Framework agreements are multi-supplier agreements used by a buyer to procure goods, works and services. They often benefit SMEs as there are more places available to supply a good or service. Securing a place on a framework is a great way to grow your business.

Framework agreements divide work into lots. Each lot typically represents a specific good, service or location. This means a supplier can apply to the specific lot(s) they can deliver. They aren’t required to supply the whole contract.

The type of tendering procedure used will be specified in the tender documents.

Value for money

The BBC are expected to achieve and deliver maximum value for money. In order to do this, they will award the bid to the most economically advantageous tender, known as the MEAT. A MEAT is assessed on multiple aspects, not just price. It’s important to note that the cheapest bid does not win. BBC tenders will be evaluated on a range of things including, but not limited to:

Innovation
Environmental considerations
Accessibility
Ability to deliver on time
Quality
Price
Technical merit
Sustainability

The award criteria will vary depending on the type of contract and will be noted in the tender documents.

Diversity, representation and inclusion strategy

Diversity and inclusion are imperative for BBC tenders. The BBC has pledged to commit to hardwiring diversity into everything they do. They are committed to growing diversity across the board via the programmes they make and the people that make them. It’s important to note that there are two commitments that come into effect on 1^st April 2021.

A commitment for the BBC to invest £100 million in diverse production and content.
A requirement for producers to have 20% off-screen diversity on new TV commissions.

The commitments are independent of each other, but both focus on underrepresented groups.

20% diversity in production teams

The BBC are looking for those:

From Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds
With lived experience of a disability
From lower-income backgrounds i.e. social economic diversity (SED).

£100 million commissioning spend

Newly commissioned titles must have at least two of the following diverse characteristics:

Stories and portrayal on-screen
Production leadership
Company leadership

It’s worth bearing these new commitments in mind when applying for your next BBC tenders.

Need help writing your BBC tenders?

The BBC care about the quality of your written response for BBC tenders. We understand that writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit and that’s ok. Your business shouldn’t have to suffer as a result of this. Outsourcing a tender to a bid writing service can help you win your next bid and grow your business.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have an 87% success rate and over 60 years of bid writing experience. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win your next BBC tenders. Whether you’re completely new to tendering, or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect BBC tender for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

A 12-month subscription to Creative Tenders
Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Creative Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own BBC tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find BBC tenders?

BBC tenders are published on the BBC website, but why limit and stop yourself there? There are hundreds of creative tendering opportunities going live every day with a variety of buyers. By limiting yourself to just the BBC you could be missing out on the perfect creative contracts in the UK for your business.

You may think that searching for creative tenders can take up a lot of your time, and you would be right. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use a time-saving tool that alerted you when new tendering opportunities are published?

Creative Tenders is one, easy-to-navigate centralised portal that hosts all live creative tendering opportunities from across the Creative Industry. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes!

Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload unique, private and public sector opportunities. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, allowing you to find the perfect BBC tenders for your business.

Previous BBC tenders sourced on our portal:

BBC Audiences – Social Media Listening Services

BBC- London- Budget: £350,000

BBC Bitesize Scotland – 2nd Level Curriculum for Excellence

BBC Bitesize- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

Factual Commissioning Opportunity for Welsh Suppliers

BBC Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

BBC Wales New Documentary Directors’ Initiative

BBC Cymru Wales- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Culture in Quarantine Commissioning Strand – Disabled Artists Commissioning Opportunity

BBC Arts- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

We also source opportunities for sectors including;

Book a free live demo with Creative Tenders to see how we can help your business grow.

A subscription to Creative Tenders offers your business:

Access to all unique, private and public sector opportunities across the Creative Industry.
An on-hand Account Manager to answer any questions you may have about finding BBC tenders.
A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new creative tenders are uploaded that day.
Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
20-minutes of free bid management consultancy each month.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for BBC tenders for your business.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Creative and Technology, for example.
Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable creative tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

All of the above.
Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Tendering portals reimagined by Hudson Discover

Hudson’s tendering portals were designed as time-saving tools to help increase efficiency in the tendering process.

How long does it take you to search through numerous websites and find the right opportunity for your business?

Tender tracking is a full-time job. We know because our team of opportunity trackers search through thousands of websites every day.

This year, we are modernising the tender tracking process by enhancing our ten sector-specific tendering portals, including Creative Tenders.

The new features

As the updated portal is currently in development, here is a brief overview of what to expect from the new system:

The look

As you may already know, we recently rebranded the Hudson Group. Our new look is sleek and modern – therefore, our portal will be redeveloped to match.

Dynamic inter-trading

Procuring services will be even easier. Buyers will simply upload their specification and select which tendering portal they wish to target.

For example, if an accountancy business needs a new website, they can upload their specification on the new ‘Post a Project’ section and simply tick a box to send the opportunity to ‘Creative Tenders’.

Team collaboration

The new systems will allow users to assign tenders to their colleagues. Once the bid is submitted, the team can mark the tender as complete in the new ‘My Tasks’ section. This will allow for consistency across teams and increase efficiency when bidding for contracts.

User details can also be managed in the ‘My Profile’ tab. This enables the user to add or remove colleagues in just a few clicks, change passwords and update business details.

Industry collaboration

At Hudson, we believe that everything is better when we work collaboratively. We know that our clients share the same belief. Our new tendering portals will allow users to ‘opt-in’ to collaborate with other businesses.

For example, a marketing agency could contact a freelance graphic designer to ask for collaboration on a large project that they do not have the in-house design resource to deliver.

Access to more tendering portals

Clients who require access to more than one portal will be able to easily swap between systems.

Simply selecting the ‘Change Portal’ menu will allow users to move from one tender portal to another without loading different websites.

For example, a software company may require access to both our Creative Tenders and Technology Tenders portal.

Stay in touch

The new dashboard page will not only display the recently uploaded tenders that match your criteria but helpful updates from the Hudson Group.

For example, the dashboard will make you aware of:

New Tender VLE masterclasses;
Bid Surgery date and location announcements;
System changes you should be aware of;
Hudson notices, such as seasonal opening hours.

Remaining features

The unique benefits of our tendering portals will remain the same. Here are just a few of the features and subscription benefits that you can expect to continue:

Manual opportunity tracking

We only use manual tender tracking processes – our research identified that a third of tenders uploaded using algorithms were tagged with incorrect CPV codes.

What does this mean?

For the users of these systems, this means that they could receive notifications for irrelevant opportunities. It also means that when the users search these portals, they will still have to sift through numerous, unrelated contracts.

Our fundamental objective at Hudson Discover it to save time for our clients. Our team of opportunity trackers manually search thousands of sites every day, uploading each tender and tagging the opportunity with relevant keywords. This means that our users can simply log into the portal and filter their search results by keywords – only to be shown relevant contracts.

My favourites

When you simply can’t decide which tender to bid for, add those that stand out to your ‘My Favourites’ page. Later, you can peruse through these opportunities and compare them more easily.

Bid writing support

Our Hudson Succeed team are still only a click away. We understand that some tenders can be daunting. Our clients don’t have an unlimited amount of time or resource to spend on writing and submitting tenders. That’s why our team at Hudson Succeed are there to help.

Last year alone, the team secured £300million in direct contract wins for our clients. They proudly hold an 87% success rate and they are trusted by more than 700 businesses, globally. More information about services and testimonials can be found on the Hudson Succeed website.

Account management

Tendering can be confusing and sometimes you need a little support. Our account managers are not going anywhere.

Every client on our tendering portals receives personal support from our expert account managers. Whether you need support with getting started or responding to a specific tender, our account managers are only a phone call or an email away.

Filters

Once you sign up, all you need to do is tell the system what you are looking for and anything matching your criteria will appear on your dashboard page.

Your criteria can be categorised by location, keywords, budget and sector. This helpful functionality will remain the same.

Do current clients need to update anything?

Our existing clients do not have to change or update anything. Your account manager will contact you to let you know when the new system will be live and what to expect.

If you have any questions about the system changes or your subscription, please contact Marie Fisher via marie@hudsonprocurementgroup.co.uk.

More information

For more information about what creative contracts in the UK are available, please get in touch with our team.

WE SOURCE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SECTORS INCLUDING;