The consequences of rebranding
U of G has been making headlines recently due to its decision to carry out a $600,000 rebranding process. The entire contract was assigned to one American company. Sounds simple enough, right? Here’s where it gets tricky; the university did not take competitive bids from other companies, which, unfortunately for them, is mandatory under provincial law.
The company in question is called Tenzing Communications, which the University has worked with in the past. According to CTV News, back in 2016, Tenzing was used for a communications audit, and because of this the school is technically following the Request For Proposal (RFP) purchasing rules. This is what makes the situation so controversial. Many people are complaining that the University should have opened up bids, regardless of this loophole, and that the University spent far too much money on this rebranding process — especially considering $140,000 was spent on seven videos alone. Considering this is taxpayer money, according to CTV, members of the Guelph community are arguing that the University should have looked for a cheaper option.
Charles Cunningham, U of G’s assistant vice-president (communications and public affairs), explained via email correspondence to The Ontarion that: “The University of Guelph issued an RFP in Nov. 2015 inviting vendors to bid to complete an audit of all University of Guelph, University of Guelph-Humber, and U of G’s Ridgetown Campus external communications materials. Several vendors bid and Tenzing Communications was identified as the successful bidder […]. Over the next two years, the University procured additional, related services from Tenzing through the sole/single source process. These related services were documented and rationales provided in accordance with appropriate purchasing and procurement practices.”
Cunningham went on to list all of the events and services that Tenzing was used for, such as:
- Updated photography
- Recruitment materials
- Media pages
Regardless of whether or not U of G was within its rights to forgo seeking new, competitive bids, the question still stands: Was this a smart financial decision? Over half a million dollars may be a justifiable amount to spend on re-branding, but that does not justify the fact that less expensive alternatives were not even explored. If similar work could have been done for a cheaper price, then why not at least attempt to seek that out? While I understand that redesigning the University’s brand is at times necessary, I cannot wrap my head around spending this much money on U of G’s image, instead of using it to improve the actual education that the University offers.
Furthermore, it appears that it would have been completely possible to spend this money using Guelph production companies. In a CTV News video, local Guelph production agencies stated that they could have done the job at a much cheaper rate.
The result of this PR catastrophe is not only the police complaint, which has yet to be fully reviewed, but also a serious blow to the University of Guelph’s image. This institution did want to raise its public profile and reshape its brand, but it is unlikely that this is what they had in mind.
Image edited by Alora Griffiths/The Ontarion