Marketing and Advertising Services RFP Issued By City of Palm Desert

The City is seeking proposals from qualified agencies for professional services to assist with the City’s marketing and advertising program in two distinct areas: media buying and creative/branding services (“Services”). Strong candidates could be Edelman PR or KCSA PR moving forth.

Background:

Palm Desert is the geographic center of the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs Desert Resorts), a fast-growing region of Southern California that comprises nine cities with a combined year-round population of nearly 500,000. Palm Desert has evolved into a vibrant community that today is the educational, retail, and cultural hub of the Valley, and one of its most desirable places to visit.

Throughout the past decade, the City of Palm Desert (“City”) has undertaken an aggressive image awareness campaign, and is now ready to evolve that campaign. The City encompasses several public-facing brands (including Palm Desert First Weekend, Concerts in the Park, the Visitor Services Center and the City’s tourism campaign) that have until now remained separate entities, each with its own marketing plan and budget. With this Request for Proposals (“RFP”), the City seeks to enhance the synergy between these brands by combining and maximizing its total media buy and unifying the branded fragments into a unified voice. The Agency selected for media buying will be required to plan, execute and manage all advertising efforts on behalf of the City, including media planning and placement (both digital and traditional), search engine optimization, monthly e-newsletter development and distribution, and other services as required. This Agency will provide strategic guidance to the City regarding both its out-of-market and in-market advertising programs, resulting in an annual media plan executed and managed by the Agency.

The Agency selected for creative/branding services will be tasked with helping the City refresh and unify its several public-facing brands including: the tourism campaign, Palm Desert First Weekend, the Visitor Services Center, and various community events such as Concerts in the Park.

Scope of Work:

SECTION A –Media Buying Digital:

• Develop and execute a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy for the City’s tourism website. Analyze results, optimize based on those results, and report results monthly.
• Develop, manage and deploy a monthly e-newsletter including design, content development, database management, distribution, segmentation, tracking, and optimizations.
• Provide strategic counsel toward furthering the synergy among owned media channels, including website, social media and e-newsletter.

Media Plan:

• Develop an annual budget that includes a comprehensive, strategic and diversified media plan and account management that promotes Palm Desert to its target audiences, in accordance with direction provided by the City. This media plan is to include both digital and traditional media, encompassing both the City’s tourism (out of market) ad campaign and its in-market advertising for local community events such as First Weekend and Concerts in the Park. This media plan should demonstrate maximum efficiency of spend and a clear ability to measure return on investment (ROI).
• Negotiate, schedule and maintain media buys in accordance with the approved media plan. Ensure that all work performed on behalf of the City is billed to the City at net amounts.
• Provide media administrative services including, but not limited to, record keeping; flowcharts; budget recaps; billing; processing payment; maintaining media buy schedules; buy confirmations; tracking make goods and credits; trafficking of creative materials.
• Attend quarterly Marketing Committee meetings to present reports as needed (minimum of one per year).
• Evaluate all media proposals submitted to the City and issue recommendations based on cost, validity, and perceived benefits to the marketing/advertising objectives of the City.
• Provide monthly and quarterly reports summarizing project activities and achievements of all services outlined in this scope of work.
• Submit detailed invoices to include the projects and services worked on or completed with supporting documentation for the previous month’s activities.

SECTION B – Creative Services Branding/Creative:

• Refresh the City’s existing “So Worth It” Tourism campaign collateral and assist in unifying all City brands, including City Tourism, Palm Desert First Weekend, Community Events, and Economic Development.
• Assist in the management and direction of photo shoots.
• Develop creative materials and concepts for all City brands as needed.
• Provide graphic design and content development for digital, print, and collateral material, as requested. Current annual design needs include approximately: 15 rack cards, 3-5 banners, 10 radio spots, 5-10 tri-fold brochures, 20-25 social media graphics, and banner ads in a variety of sizes as needed.
• Support the City’s internal marketing needs by providing integrated collateral templates.

Due Date:

April 18th

Address:

City of Palm Desert

73-510 Fred Waring Drive

Palm Desert, CA 92260