Camden County College Issues Advertising RFP

The intent of this Request For Proposals and resulting contract is to obtain Advertising Agency Services for Camden County College for a two-year contract term. Strong NJ PR firms include MWWPR and Coyne PR.

Background:

Camden County College, one of the largest and most comprehensive New Jersey community colleges, serves more than 25,000 students annually through more than I00 degree and certificate programs, hundreds of non-credit courses and an array of cultural programming. Since its founding in 1967, the College has provided a high­ quality education to more than 400,000 credit students while also enriching the professional and personal lives of thousands of additional area residents. As the sole community college within Camden County, the College embraces its role as an educational leader for the community through its programs and services at locations in Blackwood, Camden and Cherry Hill.

Scope of Work:

The Awarded Agency will be offered a two-year contract. The Awarded Agency must demonstrate an ability to fulfill CCC’s expectations in the following areas in a cost-effective and timely manner:

1. The Agency will position CCC in a distinctive, well-defined way in the minds of its target audiences. The Agency will research advertising strategies and will recommend and implement an annual advertising plan that is consistent with CCC’s objectives. The media planning process begins as early as possible in the calendar year, with the new annual plan approved in May/June. Implementation begins on or about July 1 for fall enrollments and runs through June      30 for the summer session the following spring.
2. The Agency must qualify itself on its ability to provide a full range of services on an in-house basis. There will not be any consideration by CCC to an RFP submission for cooperative ventures between Agencies. The required services include:
3. Experienced account service or account management personnel who will provide focused and prompt attention to CCC’s account.
4. Media buying experience and negotiation skills which could include print, broadcast, out-of­ home, electronic media, direct mail and Internet, and social media networking. A designated traffic manager should be able to produce insertion orders and meet creative submission deadlines, as well as keep a yearly schedule, source remnant ads and added value buys and make CCC aware of emerging media.
5. The ability to create and produce superior creative materials for print, broadcast, out-of-home and electronic media, direct mail and Internet, as well as collateral items like brochures, videos, interactive computer, web and other “sales” aids that may be assigned to the Agency. CCC is committed to a content marketing strategy and the Agency of record should have experience producing materials for such campaigns.
6. Proven ability to develop creative and innovative promotional campaigns and activities including content marketing plans and content.
7. Either a solid working lmowledge of market research on the part of the account service team, or availability of a market research functions within the Agency.
8. Consultative services, which should include creative direction and idea development, as well as trend-based recommendations in project development.
9. Ability to obtain State of New Jersey’s required documentation in accordance with the law for vendor subcontractors and ability to pay third-party vendor invoices for work perfonned under the scope of the marketing plan and related activities in accordance with the law. Agencies must obtain three price quotes for all subcontracted work and select the lowest responsible quote with the subcontractor that fulfills all required documentation in accordance with the law. All third-party vendor invoices will be sent by the vendors to the Awarded Agency and the Agency will forward a copy of the invoice to CCC’s Accounts Payable Department. CCC will reimburse the Agency, so payment can be made to the third­ party vendors by the Agency.

The Awarded Agency needs to demonstrate its ability to complete the following factors:

1. Ability of Agency work to influence enrollment trends. A primary objective of CCC’s   advertising program is to help drive enrollment upward.
2. Ability of the Agency to set and meet schedules/deadlines.
3. Agency responsiveness to CCC requests. Due to the fact that there ai·e “retail” characteristics to CCC’s marketing efforts, occasional quick tum-around is required of the Agency.
4. Ability of the Agency to provide accurate estimates, confirmation of media placements, control budgets, generate prompt and accurate billing. Once a final media plan has been agreed upon, the Agency must provide clear and accurate estimates upon which the plan was based in hard copy documentation. Written confirmation of media placements should follow submission of insertion orders to vendors and tear sheets, where applicable, should be provided with    vendor invoices. Changes in the plan and/or costs must be pre-approved by CCC and confirmed in writing.
5. Ability to ascertain that no advertising activities or public relations activities shall be conducted, made public or disseminated without the approval of the CCC Director of Communications or CCC designee.
6. Ability of the Agency to monitor, evaluate the progress and effectiveness of the advertising program. The Agency shall suggest measurable criteria for evaluation that, in its judgment, should be utilized in determining the successful performance of promotional campaigns and other work undertaken. This criteria shall include, but are not limited to, such common measures as:

• Awareness/Trial/Usage
• Tracking Studies
• Focus Groups
• Media Research
• Demographic Studies
• Advertising Concept Testing
• Consumer Segmentation Studies

Ability of the Agency to provide services on an as-needed basis to provide each (or all) of the following categories of work:

• Public Relations
• Event Planning

Due Date:

June 14th

Address:

College’s Purchasing Department, Roosevelt Hall

Building #6, Room 135

PO Box

200/200 College Drive

Blackwood, NJ 08012