Request for Proposal Activation Production Agency

Top Line Objective

To bring the JiKi'ZiNTO brand to life through activations and on-ground engagement opportunities that speak to our core target audience. The selected agency will design and deliver the grassroots strategy, including activations, commuter communication, BTL promotion, and pop-up events across four provinces over a period of four to five months. 

Who We Are

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need. From chatbots to chat shows and TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa and Asia make choices and changes in their lives.

We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl”.

Our reach is 50 million and counting. And we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and her livelihood.

Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.

That’s the Girl Effect.

Our Approach

Girl Effect uses a branded media approach towards delivering behavioural change messaging. 

We reach girls across the world, where they are -online and offline,  to support them at the critical moments in life when choices around their health, education and economic future need to be made. 

We use our expertise in behaviour change science to motivate and equip girls with information and support to help them see a different future for themselves, act on those choices, and drive greater demand for the opportunities and services available to them. 

Girl Effect builds youth brands that girls love and trust, reaching girls where they are and creating change. Chhaa Jaa in India, Tujibebe in Tanzania, Yegna in Ethiopia, Ni Nyampinga in Rwanda - these are some of our youth brands. They exist across multiple channels - digital ( Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok, Whatsapp), TV, radio, print and offline. Together, these brands reach over 20M girls worldwide.

Girl Effect in South Africa

Girl Effect has been present in South Africa for the last 7 years through its global digital brand ‘Springster’, ( now devolved), and its AI-powered chatbot for girls - ‘Big Sis’. 

The program in South Africa was launched as a series of mobi-sites under the Facebook Free Basics program and later pivoted to social media. It has made girl-friendly content accessible to girls for free, reaching  6.1M users across the African continent.

Big Sis, Girl Effect’s chatbot in South Africa, offers girls a virtual friend to talk to about their sexual and mental health concerns and curiosities.  Launched 5 years ago, Big Sis has scaled to over 200,000 users, over 4 million messages sent/received and evidenced real-world impact. Girls are better informed about their sexual and mental health and are uptaking sexual health services. Girl Effect’ chatbots around the world have been shortlisted and awarded multiple awards, notably, Big Sis has been recognized as a finalist in the Fast Company 2022 World Changing Idea Award, was shortlisted for the 2022 GLOMO Award in the category of Best Mobile Innovation for Emerging Markets. 

South Africa Opportunity

Girl Effect has the opportunity to bring hope and inspiration to an entire generation of South African youth. We are building a national-scale youth brand that will help young South Africans to rise and take charge of their dreams, take different actions and make better choices about their sexual health and economic prospects. 

This brand will come to life with a mix of content, music, social and digital tools created to inspire, inform, equip and prepare young people for the future. An entire ecosystem of products - ranging from social media content, web series, a radio drama, on-ground ambassadors, chatbot, a network of call centre operators, murals, billboards etc. - will potentially live within this brand. The brand will connect to young people through multiple touchpoints, becoming an entity larger than the sum of its parts. 

These touchpoints will be designed to reach our target audience where they are, forming an ecosystem of products around them that stays with them and propels their journey from awareness to engagement and contemplation to making informed choices about their health, education, and financial future.

The Scope

Girl Effect is looking for an Activation Agency to support us in building an on-ground strategy and leading in the production of on-ground events for the JiKi'ZiNTO programme. The expected duration of the activation rollout is  4-5 months and will span across 4 provinces. The core of the activation activity is geared towards reaching black and coloured marginalized young people between the ages of 18 -24 with a focus on young women. 

The scope of work would include:

• Creative Concept Development: Propose innovative and fresh on-the-ground event products to effectively engage with our target audience. These activations will need to generate interest and drive youth engagement, awareness and curiosity and ultimately service uptake through the JiKi'ZiNTO programme. 
• Event Planning and Execution: Handle the planning and execution of events and experiential marketing initiatives. The agency is to coordinate logistics, securing venues, managing vendors, overseeing production, documentation and ensuring a seamless execution of the activation.
• BTL Brand Activation and Promotion: Develop and implement an on-ground strategy to activate the JiKi'ZiNTO programme in the market.
•  Measurement and Analytics: Track and measure the effectiveness of the on-the-ground activations. Analyze data and provide insights on key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the success of the initiatives and make data-driven recommendations for future improvements.
• Relationship Management: Act as a liaison between the Girl Effect team and various stakeholders, including vendors, partners, influencers, and event attendees. Manage these relationships to ensure smooth collaboration and successful execution of the activations.

Scope Summary

The selected activation agency will be responsible for developing, executing, and measuring the following key activities:

1. December Festival Presence
   The service provider will be responsible for coordinating JiKi'ZiNTO’s participation in existing festivals happening in December. This includes managing the logistics for branded booths, facilitating SRH services, and ensuring service uptake through toolkits, condom distribution, and HIV/STI testing stations at these large-scale events.

• Objective: Leverage the festival’s existing audience to engage with the JiKi'ZiNTO brand and drive SRH service uptake.
• Service Provider Responsibilities:
  • Logistics and Coordination: Secure festival space i.e. Mitchell’s Plain Festival, set up branded booths, and ensure all resources are in place.
  • Service Integration: Coordinate with healthcare providers for SRH consultations, testing services, and distribution of educational materials.
  • Staffing and Volunteer Management: Recruit and manage volunteers or health professionals for the activation.
  • Reporting and Impact Measurement: Collect data on service uptake, engagement levels, and provide post-event reports.

2. University Orientation Week Roadshow (January 2025)

The service provider will be responsible for coordinating and executing a roadshow across key South African universities during orientation week, targeting young people in four key provinces. The roadshow aims to promote SRH, mental health awareness, and economic empowerment through interactive booths, workshops, and engagement spaces.

• • Objective: Reach university students at the start of the academic year to encourage access to sexual health services, mental health resources, and financial literacy tools.
  • Service Provider Responsibilities:
    • Logistics and Coordination: Manage all aspects of the roadshow, including securing university locations, setting up booths, and ensuring smooth operations across multiple campuses.
    • Service Integration: Coordinate with healthcare providers to offer SRH consultations, mental health counseling, and financial literacy experts to lead workshops.
    • Staffing and Volunteer Management: Recruit and manage staff or volunteers for running booths and facilitating workshops.
    • Workshops and Engagement: Plan and execute workshops on sexual health, mental health, and financial literacy (e.g., how to open bank accounts, managing student finances, stress management techniques).
    • Marketing and Promotion: Ensure strong promotion of the roadshow across university campuses, with pre-event awareness campaigns to maximize attendance.
    • Reporting and Impact Measurement: Assist in Collecting data on student participation, service uptake, and engagement with workshops; provide detailed reports post-activation.

3. Love and Health Workshop (February 2025)
An event to be held in Alexandra in partnership with local health organizations, focusing on healthy relationships, SRH, and mental health. The service provider will coordinate and execute a Valentine’s Day-themed event. The workshop will focus on promoting healthy relationships, SRH, and mental health awareness. The event will offer interactive discussions, free health screenings, and access to SRH services. The event will include workshops on relationships, emotional well-being, and free SRH services such as HIV testing and condom distribution.

• • Objective: Engage 5,000 young people in discussions and activities focused on healthy relationships, emotional well-being, and SRH education, with the goal of increasing service uptake in these areas.
  • Service Provider Responsibilities:
    • Logistics and Coordination: Secure venue, set up interactive spaces and booths, manage all event logistics, and ensure smooth operation on the day of the event.
    • Service Integration: Coordinate with healthcare providers to offer SRH consultations, mental health screenings, and free services like HIV testing, contraceptive distribution, and relationship counseling.
    • Workshop and Panel Facilitation: Plan and manage expert-led workshops focusing on relationship health, mental well-being, and sexual health.
    • Community Engagement and Marketing: Drive attendance through local community outreach and social media marketing, targeting the youth population in Alexandra and nearby areas.
    • Health Screening and Testing Booths: Set up areas for free SRH and mental health check-ins, offering immediate access to services.
    • Reporting and Impact Measurement: Collect data on attendance, participation in workshops, service uptake (health screenings, testing), and provide post-event reports on engagement levels and impact

4.JiKi Fest: A 2-Day Festival (March 2025, Constitution Hill)
The JiKi Fest will be the flagship event, bringing together partners, stakeholders, and the public to celebrate the JiKi'ZiNTO brand. The service provider will coordinate and execute JiKi Fest, a 2-day event at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, which serves as a key potential annual event in the JiKi'ZiNTO movement. This event will showcase the culmination of all JiKi'ZiNTO ecosystem efforts, highlighting who the movement is, what it stands for, and how young people and partners can join. With strategic partnerships driving this event, JiKi Fest is positioned to draw the large numbers needed for engagement and service uptake, making it a critical pillar of the movement.

• • Objective: Engage 10,000+ young people over 2 days, giving them access to SRH services, mental health resources, financial empowerment opportunities, and celebrate with live performances and brand experiences.
  • Service Provider Responsibilities:
    • Logistics and Coordination: Manage the setup and execution of all aspects at Constitution Hill, including stages, workshops, booths, and partner activations.
    • Day 1:Partners and Ecosystem Engagement:
      • Facilitate a partner-focused day that introduces key stakeholders, partners, and media to the JiKi'ZiNTO ecosystem, showing what the movement stands for and how it’s impacting youth.
      • Organize networking opportunities and partner engagement activities to drive collaboration and visibility.
      • Manage media coverage, ensuring that the JiKi Fest gains public and partner awareness.
    • Day 2: SRH & Mental Health Expo, Financial Empowerment, and Concert:
      • Set up SRH booths, mental health services, and workshops on economic empowerment (CV-building, opening bank accounts, financial literacy), inviting youth to participate in expert-led sessions.
      • Organize a free concert featuring Tyla and other local artists. Ensure that the JiKi'ZiNTO campaign song is performed, alongside artists aligned with the campaign’s values.
      • Handle stage production, artist management, and logistics to ensure a seamless entertainment experience.
      • Partner with service providers to deliver health screenings, testing booths, and counseling services throughout the day.
    • Marketing and Promotion: Drive attendance through strategic promotion across digital platforms, partner networks, and influencer campaigns, ensuring youth engagement and wide media coverage.
    • Health and Safety: Coordinate security personnel, medical staff, and crowd control to ensure a safe event for all attendees.
    • Reporting and Impact Measurement: Measure attendance, service uptake (health screenings, mental health consultations), partner visibility, and audience engagement. Provide detailed post-event analysis.

Deliverables 

• Activation implementation plan.
• Production of collateral and branding material for commuter & community activations to support the brand launch campaign.
• Recruitment and contracting of any required talent to support the brand and the programme’s activities.
• Roll out of the on-the-ground activations in line with approved strategy and tactics.
• Provide all necessary tech to facilitate efficient deployment of brand strategy.

Expected Commitment

• The assignment is expected to take approximately 5  months to complete, with the possibility of an extension. 
• The agency will be expected to liaise with the create team and other relevant stakeholders.
• The agency's assignment period is from November 2024 to April 2025, with a possibility of extension. 

Location

The agency must be based or have substantial operations in South Africa and must be conducive to working with teams in the UK, Sub-Saharan Africa, and India. The Assignment is to be carried out in South Africa.

Management

The agency will have a primary point of contact with our Create and Programs Team. The language of the materials and reports shall be English. The contract supervisor shall approve all deliverables submitted by the agency before any payment is made.

Procurement  Timelines

• Terms of reference published: 7th November 2024
• Bid Submission Date: 25th November  2024
• Partner selection, contracting and briefing: December

Who You Are

Skills and expertise:

• Experience creating and deploying activations mass market brands ( Boxer, Capitec etc) Have worked on similar projects, with social media influencers as needed. Passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of young people.
• Innovation and Curating: The service provider must demonstrate expertise in curating experiences that resonate with youth audiences, ensuring that the activations are not only engaging but also aligned with the JiKi'ZiNTO movement’s values. This includes the ability to design and execute activities that reflect SRH, mental health, and economic empowerment in innovative ways, making use of interactive booths, workshops, and performances that draw participation and service uptake. The curated content and experiences must amplify the campaign’s message, creating meaningful connections with the audience
• Project Management: Ability to effectively manage projects, coordinate teams with diverse skill sets, develop project strategies, and ensure successful execution from start to finish. Have a strong work ethic to execute all projects in the intended timeline with support from the GE  team. 
• Local Market Knowledge: Strong understanding of local trends, media landscape, and cultural nuances to tailor creative solutions that resonate with the target audience in South Africa. Experience creating content, content and campaigns for youth audiences, especially South African girls from low-middle income backgrounds. Social Media + radio experience would be a bonus.
• Time and Budget Management: Proficiency in delivering projects on schedule and within budgetary constraints, ensuring efficient allocation of resources and adherence to financial targets.
• Creative Ideation: Skill to generate innovative and unique ideas aligned with our objectives and target audience(girls and women), fostering creativity and pushing boundaries to deliver outstanding creative work. You will have a proven ability to work with subject matter experts and ‘translate’ their expertise into appropriate content for the target audience. 
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to analyze client goals, target audience preferences, and market trends to develop a strategic approach that drives results and provides effective creative solutions. 
• Multi-platform Expertise: Proficiency in creating content for diverse platforms such as digital, social media, print, TV, radio, and emerging media channels (chatbots), leveraging each platform's unique features to engage the target audiences. Experience in health-related content/Behavior change content production in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights would be a massive bonus. 
• Branding and Storytelling: Capability to craft compelling brand narratives and storytelling techniques that effectively communicate the Girl Effect message, create emotional connections, and build brand loyalty.
• Collaboration and Teamwork: Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with clients, creative teams, copywriters, designers, and stakeholders to bring ideas to life, fostering a collaborative and productive work environment.
• Language: Effective communicator and writer in multiple local languages. Should have a team that is fluent in  local slang across Gauteng, Limpopo, Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal
• Safeguarding: Experience working with young adults and understanding of policies involved when working with minors.

Attitudes we are looking for: 

• Comfortable with complex organizational structures and multiple stakeholders 
• Comfortable with shared decision-making 
• Solution-focused
• Enthusiastic about talking to and interacting with people across cultures and geographies - this role will require extensive conversations, presentations, documentation and fire-fighting 
• Highly empathetic and context-sensitive - able to balance conflicting needs and priorities decisively 
• Mission-driven and cares about making a difference in the lives of young people and vulnerable sections of society.

Proposal Submission

Your proposal, should you be interested (Max 10 pages), should cover

Technical Proposal

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Credential/Profile/CV
• Please showcase any previous work that you consider relevant to what we are trying to achieve, how we approach our work, and the audience we cater to. Describe the qualifications, experience, and capabilities of the firm or consultant in providing the requested services.
• References- Provide at least three references for similar contracts with a description of the service provided and the contract periods of performance.

Financial Proposal 

• Breakdown of Costs with applicable taxes and other charges clearly identified in ZAR. Agencies should provide their daily or hourly billing rate or their proposed fixed fee for the requested deliverables. 
  • All applicable taxes should be quoted separately;

In the proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the RFP and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria.

Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial bids will not be opened until the technical evaluation and then only for those proposals deemed qualified and responsive.

GE is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GE.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

Evaluation Criteria

The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below.

Technical Evaluation

• Interpretation and understanding of this TOR - 10%
• Showcases relevant experience in having done previous similar work with relevant agencies or organizations - 20 %
• Geographical Experience in South  Africa-10%
• Evidence of a minimum of three contactable references - 10%
• Experience and Qualification, share your Profile/Credentials/CV- 20%

Financial Evaluation

• Value for money/proposed budget breakdown - 30%

How to Apply

Please submit proposals, as described above, to suppliers@girleffect.org by 25 November 2024, 5:00 pm SAST  latest. Please clearly mark your email with the subject ‘Activation Production Agency: South Africa‘.’

Copyright

All materials/documents arising from this consultancy work shall remain the property of Girl Effect.

Tax

Girl Effect South is obliged by the South African tax authorities to ensure all taxes are charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position regarding provisions to South African tax legislation when developing their proposals.

Disclaimer

GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow. 

Please note: We will evaluate only proposals submitted following the application process outlined in the TOR and using our specified email address (suppliers@girleffect.org).

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organizational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found Here. We have zero-tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff. 

Equal Opportunities 

Girl Effect Services is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace. 

We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of and works extensively with the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organizations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.