MT. SAN JACINTO COMMUNITY COLLEGE ISSUES MARKETING RFP
Mt. San Jacinto Community College District offers accessible, equitable and innovative educational programs and services to students aspiring to achieve their academic, career and personal development goals. We provide students a safe environment in which to pursue basic skills, career and general education pathways. Our programs lead to transfer, associate degrees and certificates which meet workforce development needs in our diverse communities. Our commitment to student success empowers students with the skills and knowledge needed to participate meaningfully in today’s complex world.
The Mt. San Jacinto Community College District (MSJC) is one of the 115 comprehensive community colleges in the California Community College system. MSJC is located in Southwest Riverside County, California, in a region called the Inland Empire. The district encompasses 1,700 square miles bounded by Temecula to the south, Lake Elsinore to the west, Banning/Beaumont to the north, and Idyllwild to the east. MSJC has four campus locations: San Jacinto, Menifee, Temecula and Banning. Please visit our website at www.msjc.edu to review our history, district demographic and student information.
MSJC has issued this Request for Proposals (RFP) to obtain proposals from advertising/marketing agencies for marketing and creative services. The college seeks to develop an annual comprehensive plan to effectively and strategically market the college programs and services. This plan will require the efforts of a full-service professional agency (or group of agencies) that can manage all aspects of the plan and support and maintain MSJC’s brand consistency.
The plan may be modified during the year or each subsequent year a contract renewal is awarded to implement strategies and improvements that will increase effectiveness. The purpose of the annual marketing campaign is to raise awareness among students, potential students, their influencers, key stakeholders and others about programs at MSJC that can lead to good paying jobs and the ability to transfer to a four-year institution; AND 2) generate excitement and engagement during the enrollment periods for the three semesters: Fall, Spring and Summer. In addition, there will be smaller campaigns aimed at business/industry leaders, donors and other audiences that can help support initiatives to support students. The estimated maximum budget per fiscal year (12 month period) is $450,000.
Background:
MSJC has been one of the fastest-growing colleges in the state community college system and is located in one of the state’s fastest growing regions. MSJC and many of the K-12 school districts within its boundaries continue to see increased enrollment while neighboring districts experience flat or declining enrollments. MSJC serves a diverse population of more than 27,000 students a year. In May 2019, the district awarded a record-breaking 3,338 degrees and certificates to 1,723 graduates. Its newest facility, located in Temecula, is scheduled to open in Fall 2020 and will be the first permanent institution for higher education in that region. It will be critical to market this beautiful urban campus so that it becomes a recognizable and top-of-mind campus for the southern region. MSJC’s location in the IE brings opportunities and challenges. Economic growth here has outpaced the state. As the economy improved after the Great Recession, the IE experienced growth in health care; energy, manufacturing; logistics; construction; and professional, management and scientific work. The region has been a job creator. However, there are communities within the district that still report some of the highest unemployment rates and lowest educational attainment rates in Southern California. Residents who remain unskilled and lack educational attainment will be at risk during another economic downturn. It is incumbent on MSJC to help build a strong workforce so students can better withstand the economic cycles. As one of California’s community colleges, MSJC is uniquely qualified to prepare students for well-paying careers. It is affordable and accessible. It offers programs that lead to associate degrees, career certificates, and transfer opportunities to four-year universities. It has a robust and award-winning Career Education Department that reaches out to business/industry, K-12 and others to ensure MSJC provides a well-trained workforce for this region. MSJC is also rich in diversity. It is recognized as a Hispanic Serving Institution, with more than 50 percent of its population identifying as Hispanic. MSJC recognizes the many diverse populations it serves and has developed the innovative MSJC Equity Pledge to support students of various backgrounds. It is critical for MSJC to market effectively so that all students feel welcome and understand the supportive culture they will experience at MSJC to help them succeed. MSJC, like other colleges in the state, is also meeting the state’s requirements outlined in the Guided Pathways initiative that provide strategies to help students persist and complete their programs. The MSJC Success! Pathways program is a critical part of helping students achieve these outcomes. The campaigns must help students understand Success! Pathways.
Through the MSJC Foundation, the district also supports student success through programs like the MSJC Pledge for Success, which includes a Career Closet, events to raise scholarship funds and other activities
Scope of Work:
The goal is to raise awareness among current and prospective community college and high school students, their influencers, key stakeholders and others about the programs and services at MSJC. Marketing campaigns should help the audience segments to understand the affordability, accessibility and opportunities available at MSJC, and inspire and motivate student to enroll and persist at MSJC. Campaigns should: o Reach diverse audiences with messaging relevant to them
o Help break down perceived barriers, like
o Help audiences understand the critical role community colleges play in a strong state economy
o Bring awareness to MSJC’s campus locations
o Increase understanding of the life-transformation that can occur with career training and through higher education
o Increase awareness of programs and services students need to help them succeed, such as scholarships, Success! Pathways and others Additional campaigns will reach business/industry, donors and other groups to support various initiatives to support student success. To achieve the goals, the campaigns promoting each semester enrollment/registration periods and to support student success initiatives must reach the target segments with the right message at the right time and in the right locations when and where audiences will be most receptive to receiving messages. MSJC seeks a multi-disciplinary, full-service professional agency (or group of agencies) that provides a wide range of services including, but not limited to, brand consistency, advertising, strategic plans, collateral material development, media buys, media relations, social media management, campaign metrics, and project management. Responsive vendors must use a research-based approach. Hard costs that will also come out of the total contract should include, but are not limited to music licenses, travel and meeting expenses, talent fees/stipends, studio rentals, equipment rentals, wardrobe and props.
TARGET AUDIENCES The marketing campaigns aimed at students, potential students, influencers and others. The target audiences are as follows: Primary Target Audiences:
● Teens and young adults: 16 – 24 year olds, including high school juniors and seniors and 5 Mt. San Jacinto Community College District Marketing Services RFP No. 2020-012 recent graduates, as well as current and prospective community college students. There should be an emphasis on reaching African-American and Latino students as well as those with lower socio-economic status, including current and former foster youth.
● Adults, including active duty military and veterans: 25 – 54 year olds, with an emphasis on those that are unemployed or underemployed. Secondary Target Audiences:
● Influencers/Stakeholders: Including parents, caregivers, high school and community college counselors, community leaders and elected officials. Stress that the jobs that career technical education certificate and degree holders can get obtain are well- paying and can provide a good family living wage. ● Include communities whose primary language is not English. There is also a need to target:
● Business/Labor/Industry leaders and donors/potential donors to provide internships and support student success initiatives.
The purpose of this RFP is to solicit proposals from vendors with sufficient resources, experience and abilities to meet the scope of work outlined below. The priority is to create to create three major student-recruitment campaigns each fiscal/academic year to promote the Fall, Spring and Summer semesters. Campaigns generally run either six or eight weeks. Respondents should include a well-developed plan for each recruitment period that shows vendor charges and allocation of the annual budget accordingly. Other needs will be to create collateral, including an annual report, newsletters, postcards, invitations, outdoor banners, digital and other collateral. Other possible marketing campaigns may include:
· Marketing facilities and campuses
· Major events, including fundraisers
· Programs, initiatives or services
1. MEDIA BUYING: Develop and execute a well-negotiated media-buy plan to reach the target audiences. The plan should use research relevant to our service area for effective messaging and reach and include traditional radio, online video and radio, cable TV, social media, outdoor, over-the-top (OTT), and increasing our SEO. Create monthly social media calendars for posting daily content on the college’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and YouTube accounts. NOTE: MSJC accepts the industry-standard 15 percent media buy management fee.
a. MSJC holds three major campaigns a year to promote registration prior to the start
of each semester: Fall and Spring campaigns are six- to eight-week campaigns. Summer is a four- to six-week campaign.
b. MSJC may require need for smaller campaigns to promote events or initiatives throughout each academic year.
c. Vendor will budget college funds appropriately to cover media buy and manage and pay invoices to media partners in a timely fashion.
2. RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: Work with the MSJC Public Information & Marketing Office or other department as assigned to provide research that identifies problems or solutions to issues such as student retention, participation, completion or other issue that would be identified. Develop strategies that include creative treatment that adhere to the main MSJC brand but gives a unique identity to an initiative or campaign. This may include creation of taglines, slogans and/or hashtags.
3. PHOTOGRAPHY and VIDEOGRAPHY SERVICES: Provide photography services three times a year to capture images for collateral and video for commercial TV/radio spots. This will likely be pre-arranged and staged to include classroom photos, student or employee portraits, and other photos. It may also include event coverage.
4. DESIGN AND PRINT SERVICES: The vendor will be asked to design and print collateral to include annual report, invitations, newsletters, postcards and print and digital assets. Some projects may including handling, bundling and mailing services.
5. CONTENT CREATION: The vendor may be asked to develop new or revise and refine existing content for webpages, publications like brochures and fliers, social media and other uses.
Due Date:
March 3, 2020 at 10:00 a.m
Address:
Mt. San Jacinto Community College District,
Attn: Tammy Cunningham – Director of Procurement and General Services,
1499 N. State Street,
Bldg. AA, San Jacinto, CA 92583
Relevant agencies worth considering include Small Girls PR and Hunter PR.
