Advertising RFP Issued By Oregon Land Trusts
CAMPAIGN GOAL: Increased visibility of the value of Oregon’s land and conservation organizations.
MEASUREMENT: Community connections (to acquire email/address contact information)
● Ultimate use of contact info (not part of this campaign, context only): Inspire action locally—so each COLT member can use new local contacts to foster involvement/community engagement. STRATEGIES: Conservation awareness and audience engagement AUDIENCE: Oregonians 25-50 yrs old—across diverse ethnicities, genders, politics REACH: Statewide, urban and rural
Initial deliverables include at least three different concepts of approach, art, visuals and messaging, demonstrated across channels, for a campaign. The team will then refine it to leading ideas, with up to three rounds of edits. Testing concepts and a campaign plan for deployment are also key deliverables. The creative concept and messaging of a statewide awareness campaign must:
● Increase awareness of the issue of ‘conservation’ and brand awareness of land trusts across Oregon (this is no one brand or organization, but a statewide issue/movement)
● Call to action, leading concepts include: get outside, share your contact information
● Increase understanding and appreciation of the value that land provides to people’s lives
● Engage younger audiences, people 25-50, across diverse ethnicities, genders, politics
● Include an array of visual and text assets per your strategic guidance—this could include a campaign identity, print/social applications, merchandise, ads, video, templates, etc.
● Offer tactics that do not alienate our current members and demographic
● Work for urban and rural audiences and across diverse interests
● Have a central campaign with opt-in opportunities; built as a modular system for scalability across 27 organizations—so our membership can participate at levels that work for them
● Be tailorable for members/brand to customize the content and add their logo (with varying technological capabilities)
● Craft follow-up campaign creative for our member organizations to use, for how to reach out to contacts after the campaign
● Craft concepts and messaging that can be adjusted, but have longevity in the market
● Be creative in scale and tactics—using more than one approach
● Rely on a cost-effective investment that is not solely dependent on paid media and advertising
● Convey a tone that is fresh, unusual, accessible, hopeful, unifying and inspiring (really important!) Other considerations include:
● Ability to stand out and be heard in an election year
● Innovation—this should not look like the typical environmental campaign
● Highly visual—with an interest in illustration—working across digital and print materials
● Connect Oregonian’s everyday lives to conservation (health is a leading idea)
● Consider an approach that leads with messaging the climate crisis
● Align with the national Land Trust Alliance campaign work, should timing overlap
● Align with/heighten existing coalition work for Get Outdoors Day on June 6
● Build with insight from our research
● Structure an approach that is highly collaborative/inclusive of our membership and advisory team
Background:
The Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts (COLT) came to life as a nonprofit in 2012. We don’t own or steward land, but we advocate for those who do, and for the millions of Oregonians who benefit from conservation work around the state. At COLT, we currently represent 27 organizations across Oregon. They are our “members.” We serve as the central voice of the land trust community, working to protect the natural world—through unity and advocacy. What’s a land trust, exactly? It’s a nonprofit that works with individuals and communities to conserve land. Together, our coalition has taken up the charge to connect with more people in our communities and we’ve been working on that since 2017. We received a major grant for a “communications initiative”—most of which was allocated to values-based research to inform this campaign. Grounded in a values lens, we partnered with a research firm in 2017 to conduct two statewide polls, four focus groups, a series of internal interviews, community listening sessions, a literature review and more. Now, we hope a partner can take this research and insight and shape a creative campaign to help our community connect to more people. What’s the COLT vision?
● EXTERNALLY: Our vision is to connect more people, in more places, to Oregon’s land.
● INTERNALLY: Our vision is to engage 1 million Oregonians to vote, volunteer or give for conservation by 2027. To do that, we first need to raise awareness of the value of Oregon’s lands and visibility of conservation and land trusts. We also need to better connect to the diverse communities we serve, with particular emphasis on engaging younger people. We need a campaign. That’s where you come in. Why might you be interested? Nature supports us all—the water we drink, the peace we seek and the food we eat. Our work connects directly to those benefits, and we need your expertise to:
● Help Oregon’s land trusts thrive in a changing world
● Celebrate the diverse communities we serve and the value our members bring
● Reconnect young Oregonians to the natural world so they value it and want to protect it
● Expand and diversify our supporter base for lasting conservation in Oregon
Scope of Work:
Phase 1: Discovery (5% percent of contract time)
● Research: Review existing research, messages and collateral, include a competitive analysis of opportunity—within conservation arena and across sectors. Phase 2: Development (80% of contract time)
● Outline: Detail the outline of the marketing strategy for the campaign, identifying channels, audiences, paid vs. earned media, etc.
● Creative concepting: Messages, creative concepts and deployment outline (within budget) for an integrated 3-5 year campaign that supports two main strategies: increased 1) issue awareness and 2) engagement of younger audiences. Round 1 is at least 3 different ideas presented.
● Test: Upon approval, either with a research vendor (approved by COLT) or through your own staff, test multi-channel concepts and key messages with desired audience and report findings and refined/preferred approach.
● Present final: With internal team, present 1) final creative with messages, 2) implementation plan that includes recommendations, methodology and budget to COLT team leadership and member representatives. Phase 3: Deployment (15% of contract time)
● Leadership: Advise on, possibly management of—if separate budget allows, production, budget needs and implementation of innovative campaign; 3-5 year campaign timeline.
● Assessment: Regularly report on progress and asses campaign successes, weaknesses and opportunities. Deliverable includes a dashboard and recommended metrics to track the campaign’s impact. Draft and implement recommendations as appropriate.
Responding to the RFP:
● Overview. Please provide a profile of your firm, including how our coalition—and Oregonians statewide—will benefit by partnering with you, and reflect on what makes you our ideal fit. Please include bios of the team that would be working on this project and their unique qualifications for this specific work. Include three case studies of relevant work and the impact/results of that work.
● Approach. Please describe your firm’s approach to this project and provide a sample work-plan/schedule for each phase. Speak to the time you expect from our team, how you work as an integrated team with COLT, and any platforms or technology preferred. Also speak to experience or advice for working with a broad coalition—while keeping the process, feedback and roles streamlined—and provide ideas about how you’d engage COLT members along the way.
● Budget. Additionally, please outline your cost structure and rates and indicate total hours anticipated across your team. Include pricing for partner/outside contract services. Please include any reduced rate or in-kind service, as appropriate.
● References. Please provide a list of current and past clients. Additionally, provide at least 2 references and contact information for similar projects.
Timeline.
● RFPs distributed: February 4, 2020
● Recipients notify us via email by February 7 whether responding to the RFP
● RFP deadline: February 20, 2020
● Firm interviews: Weeks of February 24/March 2
● Firm selection: Week of March 9
● Campaign discovery, development, testing: Spring 2020
● Campaign launch: Summer 2020 (before major election season) Proposals must address all required responses outlined in the RFP. We are not releasing budget ranges for this contract. If you are concerned about budget, we encourage including a tiered or menu approach of options for us to consider. COLT has the right to retain the proposals for any unsuccessful bids, maintaining them in confidence. This RFP, your submitted proposal, all appendices and attachments, stated terms and conditions may become part of the resultant contract. We reserve the right to reject any or all bids or proposals which are deemed to be non-responsive, late in submission or unsatisfactory in any way. COLT assumes no contract obligation until a formal agreement is executed. Any cost incurred by the vendor prior to contract execution and placement of an order is at the vendor’s expense. All proposal responses must be received by the end of the day, February 20, 2020. Send digital responses to Jen Newlin, jen@oregonlandtrusts.org and Kelley Beamer kelley@oregonlandtrusts.org. Hard copies can be hand delivered to our office at 511 SE Morrison Street, Portland, Or 97214.
Due Date:
February 20, 2020
Address:
Jen Newlin, jen@oregonlandtrusts.org and Kelley Beamer kelley@oregonlandtrusts.org
511 SE Morrison Street,
Portland, Or 97214.
Relevant agencies include Magrino PR and MWW PR.
