Singapore : The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), the ministry of the Government of Singapore, has appointed Starcom Singapore as its as its master media agency (MMA).
MCI is in charge of information and communications technology, the media and design sectors, public libraries, as well as the Government’s information and public communication policies. The government body has appointed Starcom for one year, with the option to extend for an additional period of two more years. The S$80 million (US$58.1 million) worth account was pitched by Six agencies.
MCI has also appointed a panel of 15 agencies to be part of the Whole-of-Government media buys framework to cater to the differing media buying needs and budgets of government agencies.
Ian Loon, Managing Director, Starcom Singapore said, “We are extremely excited to be part of this inaugural effort by MCI, working closely with multiple government agencies and bodies in realising greater synergy, cost-efficiency, and impact on media buying for public communications in Singapore. Starcom is ready to embrace the challenge to collectively succeed with the right talent and scale from our Gov@Publicis Media consortium backed by Zenith, Performics and our Publicis Media Practices.
A statement from MCI’s Director, National Marketing Office, Dr Claire Tan read, “The aim of appointing a Master Media Agency (MMA) is to generate savings through economies of scale and extract greater value for use of public funds.Aggregating advertising buys is a common practice adopted by governments elsewhere, including UK and Australia, and by some private companies too. After a rigorous process that looked into the price competitiveness, media buying capabilities, and the proven track records of six tenderers for the MMA, we have appointed the Gov@Publicis Media consortium led by Starcom Media Worldwide.The total estimated contract value is S$80m.
We look forward to working closely with the appointed MMA and various media industry partners. We hope to achieve better coordinated media buys so as to save taxpayers’ funds.”
