State of Maine, Department of Defense Issues Public Relations RFP

The State of Maine Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management is seeking a public relations and marketing agency. The primary goal is to assist Maine Bureau of Veterans Services (MBVS) in its mission of locating and informing veterans and their families in the State of Maine.

SCOPE OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED

MBVS requests assistance with all aspects of building awareness campaigns to educate and engage its constituencies of veterans, service members, and their families.

Services provided will include

Earned and Social Media

1. Developing a boilerplate, key messaging documents, and “most wanted” media list
2. Drafting pitches, press releases, and pitching media
   • Media relations campaigns to include:
     • Bureau’s strategic plan to end veteran homelessness
     • Success stories of how the Bureau has changed veterans’ lives
     • Joint initiatives of the Bureau designed to fill veteran service gaps in legal support, transportation, financial assistance, education, and employment
     • Celebrating State of Maine Veteran Commemorative Days and Weeks and National Veteran Holidays
     • Promoting VA health care enrollment and claims submissions through the Bureau
3. Coordinating press conferences and other engagement events, such as roundtable discussions, editorial boards
4. Collaborating with Bureau to identify, recruit and media train key veteran and family member influencers among the Bureau’s clients
5. Identifying speaking opportunities for Bureau representatives at Chamber meetings, Eggs & Issues, Mainebiz events, etc
6. Identifying radio and TV appearances for Bureau representatives
7. Crafting letter to the editor campaigns and opinion pieces for Bureau representatives and key influencers
8. Assisting the Bureau with occasional crisis communications to address local or national veterans’ issues (such as the two incidents in 2016 of veterans shooting police officers in the states of TX and IL)
9. Collaborating with the Bureau to identify print and broadcast opportunities in “non-traditional” outlets that appeal to veterans (hunting and fishing shows and publications, auto publications, gun shows and publications, tattoo conventions)
10. Developing a comprehensive strategy to increase and enhance the Bureau’s social media accounts, including:
    • Robust timeline of posts and announcements
    • Guidance on the utility of boosted posts and when to use them
    • Identification of target demographics on Facebook to pursue
    • Partner engagement and “tagging” to increase shares, likes, followers, retweets, etc.
    • Identify key influencers with a substantial social media presence who can help tell the Bureau’s story
    • Create social media campaigns that will create a more personal relationship and dialogue with constituents
    • Consider the development of a hashtag or hashtags to help build the Bureau’s brand
    • Evaluate the risk/reward of a YouTube Channel for the Bureau

Marketing Collateral Development

• Crafting an entire suite of marketing collateral for the Bureau, including a resource guide, brochures, trifolds, and palm cards, among others.

Video Production

• Collaborating with the Bureau to produce video case studies and testimonials from veteran clients, to include pre- and post-production assistance.

Measurement Reporting

• MBVS will request quarterly analysis of PR activities – to include press clips; measurement of social traffic and followers; visibility of MBVS website and traffic to the site.

Proposal due by January 17, 2017

Division of Purchases
Burton M. Cross Building
111 Sewall Street – 4th Floor, Augusta, ME 04330