Creative Services RFP Issued By Chesapeake Bay Foundation

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation seeks the expertise of a qualified creative services and marketing consultant, with experience targeting audiences in the lower, five-county portion of southcentral Pennsylvania (Franklin, Adams, York, Cumberland, and Lancaster), to help develop and produce effective Keystone 10 Million Trees campaign elements that increase awareness and support the following objectives:

·         Recruit 19,000 landowners to restore riparian buffers on their property by the end of 2025. 

·         Position the K10 Partnership as the go-to, “one-stop-shop” resource for tree and riparian buffer restoration, education, funding sources, and volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania.

·         Provide K10 campaign staff, partners, and volunteers with the resources necessary to spread awareness and recruit support.

Secondary objectives: 

·         Help enlist 150 new K10 partners by the end of 2025.

·         Help enlist 600,000 volunteers to plant, monitor, and maintain trees by the end of 2025. 

Target audiences: 

·         Landowners with property in the lower, five-county portion of southcentral Pennsylvania that have the highest likelihood of engaging with outreach efforts to plant trees on their property.  

·         Existing/potential restoration, government, and business partners.

·         Pennsylvania citizens (outdoor conservatives and recreational enthusiasts), legislators, public officials, teachers, and students.

The timeframe of the project is April 2020 through June 30, 2022, with the potential for an annual extension up to a total period of five years. The cost of the project through June 2022 is not to exceed $150,000.

Background:

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization working to save the Chesapeake Bay and restore clean water to its rivers and streams. The Bay jurisdictions are halfway through a 15-year, federal/state plan—known as the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint—that most scientists believe is the last, best hope for restoration. Unlike previous voluntary federal/state agreements, the Blueprint has transparency, accountability, and consequences for failure. It is to be fully implemented by 2025.

Pennsylvania is significantly behind on its Blueprint commitment, which calls for 96,000 acres of forested buffers to be planted statewide from 2015 to 2025. Understanding the immense undertaking at hand, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation launched the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership (K10) in 2018. The Partnership is a collaborative effort by national, regional, state, and local agencies, conservation organizations, outdoors enthusiasts, businesses, and citizens, aimed at facilitating the planting of 10 million new trees in priority landscapes in Pennsylvania by the end of 2025.

Campaign target outcomes: 

·         Stop millions of pounds of nitrogen from flowing down the Susquehanna and Potomac Rivers into the Bay. 

·         Put Pennsylvania’s Blueprint commitment for riparian buffers and urban tree canopy back on track.

·         Inspire and equip a diverse coalition to demand public action for clean water and meeting the Blueprint goals.

Core strategies:

·         Plant 3.2 million trees through CBF restoration and direct Keystone Partnership investments.

·         Stimulate the planting of 785,000 trees through new financing programs and Blueprint accountability.

·         Support progress of 750,000 annual tree plantings through continued support and maintenance of current programs.

·         Launch an interface to connect landowners and industry.

·         Deploy an advocacy campaign to grow volunteers, landowners, and public officials to fight for trees, clean water, and Blueprint goals.

To date, more than 100 organizations have joined the Partnership. Benefits include free trees, restoration support, access to new technology, and invitations to special workshops and events.

The Partnership’s biggest challenge is finding landowners with properties appropriate for restoration and motivating them to adopt and maintain riparian buffers as a best management practice.  It can take years of repeat visits before a landowner decides to take action. To meet the demands of the Blueprint, the time between initial contact and the desired behavior must be drastically reduced. Research conducted in 2018 has provided a thorough understanding of the behaviors and spending habits of target landowners.  

Since 2018, approximately two million trees have been planted.  And while there are many opportunities for volunteers, and funds available for willing landowners, the pace needs to pick up considerably to meet the 10-million-tree goal. Heightened efforts require recruiting new landowners, expanding partnerships, soliciting help from volunteers, and raising financial support.

Currently only 14 percent of Pennsylvanians are familiar with the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership. CBF has heard repeatedly from K10 Partners that navigating funding options is difficult because there is not a central location to find information and get involved. This is where strategic marketing efforts will play a critical role in ensuring 10 million new trees are added in priority landscapes so that the Commonwealth reaches its clean water obligations

Scope of Work:

Develop and produce effective Keystone 10 Million Trees (K10) Partnership campaign elements that increase awareness and support established marketing objectives.

The consultant will work collaboratively with CBF marketing to develop and execute strategies based on priority, needs, and cost.  Efforts may include, but are not limited to:

Plan, negotiate and buy statewide media to effectively reach target audiences and maximize budgets. This may include television, radio, print, outdoor, online, nontraditional media, and outreach to diverse communities. Craft public service announcements and press kits as needed. 

Launch, maintain, and monitor K10 Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter social media accounts in accordance with CBF social media guidelines. Implement strategies to increase organic reach and engagement of website and social platforms. 

Creative briefs, production timelines, advertising concepts, video production, copywriting, and creative services. Consultant will be responsible for developing and designing materials in formats suitable for print and/or web. All creative is to be developed and produced in accordance with K10 logo, name, and language use guidelines, and must be approve by CBF prior to production and/or distribution. 

Messages should appeal to target landowner’s’ strong family and land legacy values, tendency to act philanthropically, belief in helping others, desire for autonomy, and ‘do-it-yourself’ nature.

Due Date: March 20 Address: 6 Herndon Ave., Annapolis, MD  21403Kate Cwiek, Director of Marketing and Community Engagement,kcwiek@cbf.orgM Booth and Magrino PR are agencies worth considering for this assignment.