Keeping its Mission, Vision, and Values described in the RFP at the forefront, the Agency is seeking a full-service advertising and marketing Contractor to create and execute advertising campaigns and perform marketing activities to increase new enrollments and grow contributions to existing accounts. A Contractor with demonstrated experience with 529 plans or financial products and services is preferred but not required. The Contractor must provide the following:
1. Strategic Consulting and Account Services. The Contractor must provide ongoing strategic advice to the Agency to enhance planned initiatives, identify new opportunities, assess results and recommend changes based on data, as well as participate in Agency planning meetings as needed or upon Agency request. Day-to-day responsibilities include account management, client contact, meeting coordination, Work status reporting, and budget monitoring. The Contractor must respond to general requests for information, materials, and provide advice to the Agency. The Contractor must participate in quarterly executive-level conferences with the Agency to review results to date, develop future strategies, campaigns, personnel assignments, etc. The Contractor must participate in full team sessions, held twice a year, to review the approved strategic plan, creative materials, future campaigns, timelines, budget, and results to date. The Contractor must monitor the 529 industry for trends and opportunities that might benefit the Agency. The Agency reserves the right to add meetings and conferences as needed throughout the life of the Contract.
2. Strategic Marketing Plan Development. The Contractor must conduct strategy sessions and lead the development of a biennial strategic marketing plan for meeting the Agency’s needs and goals and to refine and adjust existing plans. The marketing plan must adhere to and enhance the existing CollegeAdvantage brand and be based on industry research. The marketing plan must identify the target audience; detail obtainable key goals and major objectives; detail strategies and tactics to reach audiences; list recommendations for messaging; propose timelines, baseline benchmarks, and set appropriate measurements. In the plan, the Contractor must identify relevant resources and recommend a blend of communication channels, print and media, to reach selected audiences. The plan must include data from the Contractor’s research and the processes that were used to gather, analyze, and interpret the data, and guide the remainder of the Work to be completed.
3. Media Planning, Managing, and Buying Services. The Contractor must implement general, public awareness-building advertising campaigns during the following college savings campaign seasons: For each media campaign, the Contractor must identify and recommend the optimum combination of advertising and the media to maximize the reach of the campaign. The Contractor must develop the media plan, negotiate rates and placement of messaging, execute, and manage the media buys for all formats, e.g. streaming, social, traditional, broadcast, digital, videos, print, etc. The Contractor must perform ongoing monitoring of each campaign and when necessary, pivot and adjust to resolve identified issues. Campaigns may reach a statewide audience or be tailored to metro markets and targeted niche stations. The Contractor must monitor and track advertising logs against billings to identify and recoup credits that can be otherwise redirected and create Deliverables related to the Agency’s partnerships, such as professional sports organizations, universities and their rights holders, libraries, museums, statewide organizations and various nonprofit organizations.
4. Media Creative Services. The Contractor must design and produce creative materials based on the approved media plan. The creative materials must generate a strong emotional response, reinforce brand positioning, and incorporate messaging and images designed to resonate with the target audiences. Creative materials must support advertising on radio, broadcast, digital, mobile, SEM, and print collaterals. The Contractor must develop each campaign with the focus on driving new account openings, while residual messaging must remind current account owners to contribute to their existing accounts, thus growing the Agency’s new revenue overall.
5. Research and Analytics. The Contractor must utilize research studies to make strategic decisions and measure advertising benchmarks and results of campaigns. Upon the Agency’s request, the Contractor must conduct one baseline statewide awareness study to serve as a benchmark, measure the past year’s campaigns performances, and guide future strategies. In subsequent years, the Agency may request additional surveys or market research, as needed, and the Contractor must provide such surveys upon Agency request.
6. Video Production. The Contractor must recommend the strategy, create, produce, and help deploy up to six :30 second product education videos, for year-round usage. The Contractor must develop and produce three to four videos ranging from 6 to 30 seconds for each campaign directed to primary and secondary audiences. The Contractor must develop a multi-channel strategy for the deployment of videos to support new account openings and account owner contributions as well as general awareness.
7. Public Relations Consulting. The Contractor must provide ongoing support to the Agency’s public relations initiatives including press releases, story pitches, creation and distribution of multimedia news releases, and editorial pitches to promote Ohio 529 CollegeAdvantage, and position the Agency and its Executive Director as a 529 thought leader to Ohio and targeted national media outlets. The Contractor must also provide strategic advice on social media messaging and linkages of digital communications to the overall advertising and marketing efforts.
8. Transition Plan. The Offeror must provide a transition plan required by Part 2, Section F in its Proposal that demonstrates its understanding of the Work, identifies critical tasks and its process for a smooth transition to another Contractor or the Agency without disrupting operations and active campaigns.
Contact: Department of Administrative Services Office of Procurement ServicesDASPRR@das.ohio.gov
