Call: Information and communication campaigns and media partnerships (RFI)

Buyer: Copernicus Climate Change Service and Atmosphere Monitoring Service, operated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF, HQ  in Reading, UK, other sites in Bologna, Italy, and Bonn, Germany)

This RFI will close on 15 April 2026

The purpose of this RFI is to provide information relevant to the procurement of information and communication campaigns and media partnerships, so that feedback from potential participants can be considered prior to issuing an Invitation to Tender (ITT).

This RFI has been written with the expectation that responses will primarily come from providers who would be able to respond to a future ITT for the provision of the complete or subset(s) of the service. However, the purpose, primarily, is to gather information. Responses are therefore welcome from providers with key knowledge and experience to operate information and communication campaigns, including media partnerships.

ECMWF is aiming to expand communication efforts for strengthening positioning and leadership of the Copernicus services CAMS and C3S and hence issue a request for information and communication campaigns and media partnerships. In this regard, ECMWF, through these Copernicus services, aims to be seen as a leader of the climate conversation across platforms, sectors and borders, strengthening its public value and political resilience in the years to come.

Specifically, ECMWF seeks to do the following:

• Explore market landscape: to have a better understanding of the market opportunities and potential tenders, with current trends and state-of-the-art communication practices including means of media partnerships. Nowadays, campaigns have evolved to complex, multi-layered, and data-driven narratives designed to foster engagement in a fast-paced, fragmented media and social media landscape.

• Identify technical specifications: Key components in communication campaigns such as AI-driven personalization, multilevel modelling, visual storytelling, gamification, influencer and content credibility, or even experiential integration, should be considered and explored in the proposals. Besides, media partnerships can be seen as strategic and relational infrastructures to build influence, collaborative content creation, data-driven advocacy, or cross-industry collaboration.

• Establish the level of interest and capabilities of providers in working with ECMWF to achieve its goals and identify any barriers to providers responding to a future ITT.

ECMWF’s primary target audiences for C3S and CAMS consist mainly of decision-makers, direct users, and intermediaries:

– Policymaking & Parliamentary bodies

– International organisations, NGOs & international financial institutions

– Science & Academia

– Business & Industry

– Social Media and traditional Media – as both in their own right act as an amplifier of corporate messages

These audience groups segment down further and split across priority sectors such as agriculture, energy, forestry, health, insurance, tourism, water etc. B2B, B2C and B2G marketing strategies must be created to adapt the message and to use the most appropriate channels for an effective and timely communication according to the needs and wants of the target audience:

– B2G markets to the person as governmental entity

– B2C markets to the person as consumer/direct user

– B2B markets to the person as a business decision maker or influencer

Scope – ECMWF’s requirements within the scope of this RFI consist of:

1. Proposal for information and communication campaigns: Brief description of potential respondents and presentation of potential forms of information and communication campaigns.

2. Proposal for media partnerships: ECMWF requests a specific brief description on how to envision this communication activity bearing in mind this could be part of a concrete campaign or sits aside as a longer relationship.

3. Management and monitoring: Brief description of how the respondents would envision the operationalisation of the contract with ECMWF, including the management of potential subcontractors and media and communication partners, and the management of campaigns and media partnerships if executed in conjunction with third parties.

Proposals for information and communication campaigns

The proposals for the information and communication campaigns should include:

I. Company overview and qualifications, including organisational background, team expertise and case studies with strong ability and experience in:

o Unpicking complex messaging and delivering to different target audiences

o Bringing together experts in media (media buying and partnerships), marketing, communication, influence, and creativity

o Executing 360 -degree campaigns

o Building collaboration and partners -including media partnersleading to real networking opportunities and activations

o Audience targeting and audience intelligence for outreach performance metrics, considering the shifts in current audience behaviour.

o Producing SWOT and PESTLE analyses

II. Approach and methodology, including the use of media buying, to achieve the communication goal to raise thought leadership and strengthen position in climate and environment public conversation. The proposed solution would include different options and justification. This could include but not be limited to:

o Content creation to drive brand positioning and leadership, reinforcing the brand as reliable source for environmental information.

o Storytelling and visual communication as universal language and indispensable to show data-driven information.

o Media activation to ensure brand presence in the most influential channels for CAMS and C3S: description of channels including digital media and traditional offline, or even experiential ones.

III. Innovative solutions for operating campaigns and for tracking and monitoring purposes:

o Short-Form video & live streaming

o AI driven personalisation

o Immersive activations or augmented reality experiences

o User generated content

o Interactive quizzes and assessments

o Show don’t tell storytelling

IV. Implementation and support, including the selection of potential collaboration or work with partners and contractors.

Proposal for media partnerships

There should be information about potential forms of media partnerships and potential target media outlets to engage ECMWFs target audience and to boost credibility and leadership position of the brand Copernicus, and intrinsically ECMWF, in the domains of climate change and atmosphere monitoring.

ECMWF understands media partnership could be either as part of a concrete communication campaign or siting aside as a longer and more established relationship with a media outlet.

In the proposal for each type of media partnership, the following items should be considered:

I. Partnership objectives

II. What we could offer and what we would need

III. Monitoring of the media partnership: how to enforce the partners to track and achieve results

Management and monitoring

The proposals should include how the agency/contractor will manage and monitor potential subcontractors or partners, as well as the campaigns and media partnerships executed jointly with third parties, in order to ensure a results driven effort with clear understanding of effectiveness and goals achievement through ROI, engagement or KPIs. This implies analysing pre- and post- metrics.

ECMWF expects the future contractor to execute a PESTLE and SWOT of the brands C3S and CAMS, or the brand Copernicus in the areas of climate change and atmosphere monitoring, prior to the design of information and communication campaigns.