A longtime D.C. advertising firm said it was improperly passed over in its bid for a nearly $70 million government contract with the D.C. Lottery, alleging in a formal protest that the agency opted for a team that’s skirting the District’s contracting rules.
MDB Communications, one of the city’s largest advertising firms, has spent the better part of the last year fighting to overturn the lottery’s decision to strip it of a contract it’s held for most of the last 30 years. The company claims that its rival bidder, a team led by D.C.’s Taoti Creative, relied on contracting gimmicks and D.C. government connections to win the five-year deal.
Specifically, MDB alleges in court documents that Taoti doesn’t have the right experience to provide the “advertising and marketing” services for the lottery’s products described in the solicitation despite being the team lead. Instead, MDB claims in its protest, which ultimately was unsuccessful, that much of the work will likely be managed by Fuseideas, a Massachusetts advertising firm that counts a variety of other state lotteries among its clients.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Alex Koma over at Washington Business Journal
