Charlotte Seeks Media Buying and Creative Services

The City of Charlotte (City) plans to contract to provide consultant services for the ongoing Storm Water Educational Media Campaign for Media Buying and Creative Services. The City is seeking firms whose combination of experience and expertise will provide timely, cost-effective services to the City.

Background:

In compliance with the EPA’s Clean Water Act and FEMA’s Community Rating System, Charlotte- Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) works to raise awareness of stormwater, flood safety, and the effects of individual behavior on surface water quality throughout the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. CMSWS conducts the water quality, flood safety, and volunteer educational campaigns specifically to: (1) increase public awareness of surface water quality issues and flood safety (2) increase public action/volunteer efforts that reduce water pollution (3) satisfy a Federal requirement to increase public awareness and involvement, (4) increase reporting of water pollution problems, (5) increase public awareness of flood risks, and (6) satisfy a Federal requirement to increase public awareness and action to protect lives and property from flooding. In addition to current campaigns, CMSWS is considering a new educational campaign to increase public awareness of aging storm drainage infrastructure and the importance of repairing and replacing infrastructure to support a thriving city. CMSWS is also interested in enhancing communications to effectively describe the impacts of our work and to contribute to the campaign goals described above.

CMSWS is seeking a Firm that will provide media buying services and creative services for its ongoing educational campaigns.

Media Buying Services:

The firm should have experience in creating media strategy and buying for cause-related marketing and advertising, such as for non-profit, government and institutional outreach. The firm should have an understanding of how to define audience goals and how to leverage materials to expand from one media format to another. Media buying will require audience identification, budget parameters, negotiations with media outlets, placement of ads, management of make-goods, verification, and post- buy analyses. The firm will provide monthly and annual reports of all outreach and will work with the City to evaluate outreach effectiveness and efficiency.

The firm selected under this RFQ will be required to develop a media plan at the beginning of the contract term for the City’s approval. The City will approve all individual media placements to ensure an appropriate distribution. In addition to buying media placements, the City expects the firm to request media outlets provide in-kind publicity (e.g. public service announcements, strategic public events, etc.) from each media outlet.

The firm will be responsible for achieving the following media placement objectives:

• Create media plan for each campaign based upon market and media research;
• Utilize the most efficient combination of advertising media to promote public awareness and engagement;
• Efficiently schedule, place and manage media buys;
• Reach the target audience on a regular basis to maximize impressions and encourage behavioral change;
• Provide post-buy analyses for each media outlet;
• Provide affidavits from media outlets for each broadcast month along with all invoices;
• Provide annual media audit of all broadcast outreach, based upon the City’s fiscal year end of June 30th each year; and

Examples of media placement that may be part of this campaign include:

• Radio commercials
• Television commercials
• Internet
• Print
• Out-of-home.

Creative Services:

The firm should have experience in designing and producing cause-related creative material, such as for non-profit, government and institutional outreach. The firm should have an understanding of how to define audience goals and how to leverage creative material to expand from one format to another. Creative services will require audience identification and budget parameters. The firm will provide monthly and annual reports of all creative materials produced and will work with the City to evaluate outreach effectiveness and efficiency. The firm selected under this RFQ will be required to develop art and creative direction at the beginning of the contract term for the City’s approval. The City will approve all individual materials as produced. The City expects the firm to collaborate with staff to create a strategy, budget and timeline for developing any new content. The firm will also be expected to collaborate with staff on a consistent basis to develop print materials, illustrations, animations, website and social media content.

The firm will be responsible for collaborating with staff and achieving the following creative services objectives:

• Set 3-year art and creative direction for campaign artwork, providing a consistent look and feel that gives cohesion to a variety of messages on a variety of media channels;
• Establish and seek approval for creative production project budgets and any vendors used;
• Develop creative content for the variety of messages and media channels aforementioned;
• Provide the talent and resources needed for developing creative content.
• Set 3-year goals for audience development and interaction;
• Develop creative content for the social media channels; and

The Firm is required to obtain all rights for the City to retain, for talent and creative services used in developing new content, for an unlimited period of time in order to air and reuse advertisements as needed. All raw materials used in the creation of deliverables become the property of the City. This includes, but is not limited to, all raw art files (uncompressed with layers), stock imagery, raw video files, animations, illustrations, and any fonts used. The vendor and point-of-contact will arrange delivery of raw materials upon deliverable completion.

Examples of the TV ads Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services currently uses for its water quality, volunteer and flooding campaigns are available at https://www.youtube.com/user/StormWaterServices online.

Due Date:

February 6th

Address:

City of Charlotte

Engineering & Property Management

600 East Fourth Street, Charlotte, NC 28202

PR Firms with relevant experience could include Finn Partners or Ruder Finn.