At a Glance
- Buyer: Oregon Health Authority, Public Health Division, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Section
- Industry: Public health
- Location/markets: Oregon statewide
- Primary scope: Strategic communications and social marketing services to prevent and reduce excessive alcohol use and related harms
- Key deliverables/channels: Audience and message research, creative development and testing, advertising purchase and placement, social media strategy and maintenance, website strategy and maintenance, community engagement, campaign monitoring and evaluation, training and technical assistance, public relations
- Budget: Estimated not-to-exceed $500,000 for the first year; estimated total five-year not-to-exceed amount of $10M, subject to future budget approvals
- Contract type/term: One contract anticipated; initial term through June 30, 2031, with options to amend for additional related work and funding up to a cumulative maximum of seven years
- Key dates: Proposal deadline April 30, 2026, at 3:00 PM PT; optional Round 2 interviews June 5, 2026; notice of intent to award approximately June 10, 2026
- Eligibility/must-haves: At least one key person with health communications, public health social marketing, and community co-creation experience; at least one senior management key person with experience working with culturally specific communities; no direct or indirect relationship with tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis industries
Why This Could Be Interesting
The Oregon Health Authority is hiring for a statewide strategic communications and social marketing engagement tied to one of its highest-priority public health issues: reducing excessive alcohol use and related harms.
In plain English, this is a broad public-sector communications brief. The selected partner would help manage brand strategy, research, campaign development, paid media, social, website work, community engagement, reporting, technical assistance, and public relations for Rethink the Drink and related prevention efforts.
What makes this notable is the combination of scale, term length, and breadth. This is not a narrow creative project. It is a multi-year operating role inside a statewide public health initiative, with an estimated first-year ceiling of $500,000 and a projected five-year ceiling of $10M.
The scope also signals complexity. The agency will need to work across priority populations, support culturally responsive communications, provide translation and transcreation on request, and collaborate with local public health authorities, community groups, coalitions, and Tribal and Tribal-serving organizations.
Best suited for agencies with deep public health or public-sector communications experience, strong multicultural strategy and community engagement chops, and the operational discipline to manage complex stakeholder environments and public funding accountability.
Proposal deadline: April 30, 2026, at 3:00 PM PT
Download the full RFP here.
