VISIT FLORIDA, in collaboration with Veterans Florida, issues this Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) to solicit proposals from an agency to provide agency services for marketing initiatives, strategic insights, communications, public relations, creative development, production services, media buying, website hosting and account management services to market Florida to retired and recently separated military personnel as a permanent residence. The initial contract is expected to begin July 1, 2018 and terminate June 30, 2019 with up to two annual renewals based on the continuation of state funding.
Background:
Florida is For Veterans, Inc. (“Veterans Florida”) promotes Florida as a veteran-friendly state. Section 295.23, Florida Statues, requires VISIT FLORIDA to spend $1M annually on marketing the state to veterans as permanent home and on information dissemination to improve veterans’ knowledge of and access to benefits through a combination of appropriated and private funds. The two organizations collaborate to perform the duties set forth in section 295.23.
Veterans Florida’s mission is to attract and retain veterans and their families by connecting them to education, training, employment, and entrepreneurial opportunities as well as promoting veteran hiring among Florida businesses.
Veterans Florida has identified the following goals as part of its 2018-2020 Strategic Plan:
Goal 1:
Communication: Engage in strategic communication that promotes Veterans Florida’s programs and the State of Florida as veteran-friendly
o Objectives:
- Advocate for the Veterans Florida mission as a legislative and stakeholder priority
- Tell the Veterans Florida story and stories of successful veterans engaged by Veterans Florida
o Metrics:
- Increase the annual number of website visitors and social media followers/engagement
- Increase the number of veterans and service members Veterans Florida serves annually
Goal 2:
Programming: Administer successful veteran employment and entrepreneur programming
o Objectives:
- Obtain state and corporate resources for programs
- Increase business participation in business training grant and hiring veterans
- Increase support to entrepreneurship program businesses throughout the lifecycle of the entrepreneur’s company
o Metrics:
- Increase number of Florida businesses participating in Veterans Florida Career Services programming
- Increase number of veterans hired by Veterans Florida participating businesses
- Increase workforce training grant recipients
- Increase number of veterans launching their own businesses following participating in Veterans Florida’s entrepreneurial programming
Goal 3:
Organization Operations: Grow and sustain an effective and efficient organization
o Objectives:
- Implement Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) recommendations as applicable
- Engage existing and prior board members as organizational ambassadors
- Diversify funding and funding sources including through grants and donations
- Refine organizational metrics and success
o Metrics:
Increase annual nongovernmental revenue for Veterans Florida operations
For more information please visit veteransflorida.org.
Scope of Work:
The selected agency must:
- Create effective brand strategy and build advertising campaign for Veterans Florida.
- Agency services include:
- Plan, research, consult and present creative options to VISIT FLORIDA and Veterans Florida;
- Establish objectives and benchmarks;
- Develop a Marketing and Advertising Plan;
- Creative development and production of elements necessary for the execution of the Marketing and Advertising Plan;
- Execute Marketing and Advertising Plan, which may include media buying, optimization, and social media engagement;
- Produce services necessary to create communication materials for engagement with the business community, veterans, and potential donors/funders;
- Provide status updates;
- Present at Veterans Florida Board Meetings;
- Overall project and program management and coordination;
- Provide Google product support (analytics, data studio, adwords, etc);
- Create and manage keywords and optimize content for SEO;
- Provide website hosting;
- Content development for websites. Create articles for website, print publications, print and social media advertisements, flyers and brochures, and any videos to support marketing and advertising plan; and
- PR/Communications responsibilities: write and distribute press releases, schedule and coordinate media engagement at Veterans Florida events to increase visibility of programs in key markets.
- Observe market research, demographic data, and data relating to the effectiveness of past and present campaigns.
- Develop a comprehensive social media strategy, including social media posting guidelines, content calendar, and content curation for social media. The selected agency will be responsible for paid social media advertising.
Due Date:
March 23rd
Address:
Zimmerman PR is one of many Florida PR firms.