Jim Rosica
The Florida Lottery has awarded a lucrative advertising contract to PP+K, a Tampa-based advertising agency.
The award, potentially worth tens of millions of dollars, was posted by the Lottery Tuesday.
A spokeswoman declined to comment on the contract until a safe-harbor period ends Friday.
That’s the deadline for losing bidders to file an administrative protest over the award, communications director Connie Barnes said.
A call to PP+K Thursday was directed to owner Thomas Kenney. He was not in the office, an assistant said.
The contract is for “General Marketing Advertising and Related Commodities & Services,” the announcement says.
The last time the contract was up it sparked a bid protest after the department awarded a $100 million contract, which included money for ad placements, to St. John & Partners.
Only four companies had responded, including St. John. The others were CommongroundMGS, Sapient and current winning bidder, PP+K.
At the time, lobbyists Slater Bayliss, Nick Iarossi and Dan Russell raised concerns with the governor’s office over the ad contract.
Concerns about the way the contract was bid also surfaced in questions submitted by potential bidders to the Lottery.
This post contains background from The Fine Print blog, reprinted by permission of Gary Fineout.
