Scope
Reference
2025/26-02
Description
The brief
Design and deliver the creative and production for a high impact, engaging and focussed pan-London food campaign to shape food waste prevention and recycling. The campaign needs to increase motivation, knowledge and make clear how easy recycling and preventing food waste is for 21-44 year olds and parents with children under 11 years old at home (see audience segments in creative strategy). The campaign should be centred on emotion, identity and shared values to tap into why people should care, not just how to do it, at a time when there is an opportunity to start a new normal and establish new habits. The campaign should motivate individuals to reduce their household food waste and, where waste cannot be prevented, recycle it correctly - with the focus of the messaging for year one being on food waste recycling. The campaign should use inspiring messages and visuals, and practical advice to build on the success of the Eat like a Londoner campaign; as well as build on learnings from TRiFOCAL's 'Small Change, Big Difference' campaign and the more recent EU-funded 'Food Wave' project.
There is an existing campaign brand identity with the Eat like a Londoner campaign which can be adapted for this new campaign. The campaign would need to be renamed to focus on something less related to eating, but the brand colours, tone of voice guidelines and overall identity can continue to be used (along with website and social channels). An example of a new campaign name is included in the creative strategy, but we are open to hearing alternative names if you think there is a better one which we should consider. Please include testing of a new campaign name in your response.
This motivational campaign should play a critical part in motivating residents to recycle unavoidable food waste and adopt new bin routines at home, with clear, relevant messaging tied to upcoming changes. While the 'Love Food Hate Waste' campaign managed by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) offers broad, national-level resources that are educational, a London campaign should be grounded in London-specific research, including ReLondon's 'London's food footprint' report, the insights that underpinned Eat like a Londoner, and borough-level data on waste behaviours, emissions, and barriers, available in the creative strategy. It should recognise the diversity of the city and different housing types (including flats and flats above shops), tailored to a fast-moving food economy, as well as representing the scale and mix of London's food cultures. This is incredibly important to land the messaging with the target audience, as there is evidence to show that people want to see themselves reflected in the marketing they receive.
Campaign requirements
The campaign is to be delivered over a one-year period, starting in January 2026. The planning phase will start immediately on appointment with a full briefing on progress to date. Our goal is a June 2026 campaign launch. More detailed timings can be found in the creative strategy.
While the campaign may create a wide range of assets on both main topics (food waste prevention and food waste recycling) over the year, some boroughs and waste disposal authorities may choose to focus more on one set of messaging, so the campaign must work and be adaptable on several levels, including potentially:
• Regional - awareness-raising activity across the capital, including outer as well as inner London boroughs;
• Sub-regional - awareness-raising and engagement activity across clusters of boroughs (waste authorities);
• Localised - targeted activity tailored to residents of one or more London boroughs.
Channels/media
The campaign will launch in June 2026 and media bursts will continue for the duration of the one-year campaign, at which point the campaign assets will need to be handed over to the London boroughs in a toolkit so they can continue the campaign for subsequent years. We would like to hear recommendations on channel mix, but they are likely to include:
• Out-of-home advertising - depending on budgets and media availability, including TFL network (buses, tube, etc), plus owned or price-capped media channels via boroughs (e.g. JCDecaux sites, libraries, community spaces, leisure centres, etc)
• Digital advertising - via social media channels (Instagram and Facebook) and influencers. Additional digital channels (e.g. programmatic) may be explored if relevant and recommended in the media plan
• Audio - such as local radio and podcasts, if recommended in the media plan
We are also keen to explore brand partnerships with likeminded individuals, influencers and organisations to help land and scale the messaging. Recommendations for this should be included in the proposal.
Owned channels include a website and organic social media channels which are updated several times a week. The website would be updated to include a section dedicated to food waste recycling. It's important that this campaign builds trust with citizens in order to encourage them to reduce and recycle household food waste, so all campaign imagery should reflect the reality of different resources and housing (especially flats and smaller spaces), diets, food cultures and traditions that people have in the capital. Food should reflect diets including (but not limited to) meat-based, vegetarian, plant-based and flexitarian diets.
Campaign KPIs and evaluation
While the ultimate goal of the campaign is to change people's behaviours at home, it is primarily an awareness-raising campaign to motivate Londoners to take an interest in and use their food waste recycling service. The policy goal is to move food out of the rubbish bin, into the food waste recycling. A baseline of current food waste recycling tonnage in each borough can be provided.
Evaluation will take place at the end of year one and will therefore focus on whether people have seen, engaged with and taken an action against the messaging. KPIs will likely include:
• Engagement - how many people have engaged with our ads
• Awareness - how many people recall seeing our ads
• Consideration - has this impacted claimed behaviour
Objectives
The objective of the campaign is to:
• Get: Younger Londoners, aged 21-44 and those with children under 11 years old at home (the highest food wasters)
• To: Reduce household food waste and recycle what they can't eat
• By: Connecting with them emotionally and using normative messaging to engage, motivate and empower them to reduce their "food footprint" (the carbon impact of their household food consumption)
This objective will be achieved by fulfilling the following sub-objectives:
• Build on Londoner's belief that wasting food is morally wrong and increase awareness of the relationship between food and climate (for citizens already engaged in the topic of sustainability)
• Increase motivation to reduce household food waste and recycle food that can't be eaten using behavioural nudges
• Build understanding of how to reduce both household costs and impact on the climate through changed food behaviours at home
• Drive traffic from the London-wide campaign (on the 'why') through to borough-level service comms (on the 'how')
Deliverables
Please provide a written proposal responding to the brief to show how you would achieve the objectives outlined above. Please do not be constrained by our methodology - if you feel there are better ways of achieving our objectives, we would like to see those ideas.
Your response should be no more than 8 x slides or A4 sides and should include:
• Your suggested approach to the campaign (please note, no worked up creatives are required at this stage)
• A cost breakdown showing hours and deliverables (inc;. VAT)
• A project timeline showing how you will meet the deadlines outlined below
• The team being put forward for the project, detailing their experience to be able to deliver the work (this can be an appendix over and above the 8 pages)
• Any relevant case studies showing previous work on translating behavioural insights into an effective communications and/or behavuiour change campaign (these can also be an appendix)
The following specific deliverables should be included in your quote:
a. Attendance at an in-person inception meeting, including a briefing workshop to discuss and agree the detailed requirements of the project;
b. Regular virtual and/or in-person update meetings with the ReLondon campaign lead and working group;
c. All planning and delivery of activity outlined above;
d. A timeline with key dates leading to the launch date(s) agreed in liaison with the campaign lead, media agency and working group;
e. All content artworked and ready to hand over to the media agency for both digital and out-of-home advertising, and all artwork to ReLondon as editable files;
f. Presentations to the project board, including Q&A, of (a) draft creatives and (b) final creatives and plan (slide decks to be provided to the project team afterwards);
g. Attendance at project board meetings at other key moments as identified and agreed with the campaign lead.
Budget
The budget allocation for this activity is £60,000 incl. VAT.
Please note, this budget includes a small allocation to update the existing website (new branding assets, URL, etc). Suggestion circa £5,000.
Timescales
This is a two-stage procurement process. The timetable below shows not just the procurement timeline but also the current draft campaign delivery timeline. It is essential that campaign activity is live in boroughs by June 2026. Please note this timeline is indicative and we reserve the right to change it if deemed necessary for the success of the project.
Stage Deadline
Brief sent out by ReLondon 16th December 2025
Questions relating to the brief received 9th January 2026
Questions relating to the brief answered 14th January 2026
Submission deadline 23rd January 2026
Stage 1: Shortlisting 30th January 2026
Stage 2: Shortlisted agencies to present their response to brief 06th February 2026
Agencies notified of outcome 18th February 2026
Agency appointment letter shared and signed 03rd March 2026
Work commissioned and inception meeting scheduled 05th March 2026
Creative development and testing March - May
Creative assets finalised and shared with ReLondon and project board for consultation and sign off June 2026
Campaign go-live June 2026
Contract 1
Supplier
Contract value
- £50,000 excluding VAT
- £60,000 including VAT
Above the relevant threshold
Award decision date
18 February 2026
Date assessment summaries were sent to tenderers
18 February 2026
Standstill period
- End: 27 February 2026
- 8 working days
Earliest date the contract will be signed
5 March 2026
Contract dates (estimated)
- 5 March 2026 to 31 July 2026
- 4 months, 27 days
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
- 79311000 - Survey services
- 79314000 - Feasibility study
- 79315000 - Social research services
- 79341000 - Advertising services
- 79342000 - Marketing services
- 79900000 - Miscellaneous business and business-related services
Information about tenders
- 42 tenders received
- 42 tenders assessed in the final stage:
- 42 submitted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)
- 0 submitted by voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE)
- 1 supplier awarded contracts
- 41 suppliers unsuccessful (details included for contracts over £5 million)
Submission
Submission type
Tenders
Procedure
Procedure type
Competitive flexible procedure
Supplier
BARLEY COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED
- Companies House: 10043675
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PGXQ-2395-WXLP
71-75 Shelton Street
London
WC2H 9JQ
United Kingdom
Email: hello@barleycommunications.co.uk
Website: https://barleycommunications.co.uk/
Region: UKI31 - Camden and City of London
Small or medium-sized enterprise (SME): Yes
Voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE): No
Supported employment provider: No
Public service mutual: No
Contract 1
Contracting authority
London Waste and Recycling Board operating as ReLondon
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PBNP-9149-XDTM
Sustainable Workspaces, 5th Floor, County Hall, Belvedere Road
LONDON
SE1 7PB
United Kingdom
Email: tenders@relondon.gov.uk
Website: https://relondon.gov.uk/
Region: UKI45 - Lambeth
Organisation type: Public authority - sub-central government