New Hampshire Community Colleges Issues Marketing & Public Relations RFP

The Community College System of NH has issued a marketing RFP. The selected agency will work with the Community College System of NH (CCSNH) to achieve its marketing goals in support of the CCSNH mission, vision, and strategic goals.

Chief goals of marketing strategy include:

• Increasing enrollment by motivating students to consider and enroll at one of NH’s community colleges
• Supporting internal efforts to increase retention of current students
• Increasing awareness of NH’s community colleges as high-quality, affordable, accessible and supportive institutions of higher education, which prepare students for professional success and/or transfer

CCSNH Overview

1. Organizational History and Overview
   • CCSNH is a public system of seven community colleges dispersed across the state, and a central system office that provides coordination, back-office support and some centralization of functions. The system is governed by a single board of trustees and led by a chancellor. Each college is independently accredited and is led by a president. CCSNH serves about 28,000 students annually. Approximately 20,000 are taking credit courses on a part-time or full-time basis. 5,000 are high school students taking dual credit courses through Running Start and Early College Programs.
   • Colleges include Great Bay Community College, with a main campus in Portsmouth and an academic center in Rochester; Lakes Region Community College in Laconia; Manchester Community College; Nashua Community College; NHTI-Concord’s Community College; River Valley Community College with a main campus in Claremont and academic centers in Keene and Lebanon; and White Mountains Community College with a main campus in Berlin and academic centers in Littleton and North Conway.

2. Geographic Scope
   • 93 percent of students are NH residents. A core part of the CCSNH mission is to provide educational and economic opportunities for NH residents.

3. CCSNH Structure, Relationship within CCSNH and Agency Relationship to Component Parts
   • The central CCSNH system office will be the primary client and will rely on agency services more consistently than the colleges, including for the execution of statewide marketing campaigns. The agency’s relationship with each college will vary and cannot be predicted as each college plans and funds its own marketing and acts independently in this regard. Historically, some colleges have used some of the agency’s services while others have not. The seven community colleges are part of a system but are also individual colleges with their own brand, identity, distinct campus features, array of offerings, and regional attributes. There is an overall community college value proposition that all seven share, which includes affordability, transfer, education aligned to careers, local convenience, and a supportive college environment.

General Expectations

CCSNH seeks an integrated marketing agency with the capacity to undertake strategic planning and execution across a variety of platforms. The selected agency must demonstrate a thorough understanding of and feel for New Hampshire’s regions, population, media, economic and political environment, and higher education landscape, with particular focus on segments of the population seeking postsecondary education and their influencers. CCSNH seeks an agency with a passion for education and the community college mission, and an understanding of ways to motivate prospective students to consider NH’s community colleges.

• The selected agency will demonstrate a strong relationship with NH media and the ability to capitalize on value-add opportunities.
• The selected agency will have a demonstrated ability to create groundbreaking creative work and cost- effective, quality production.
• The selected agency will demonstrate expert tactical understanding of traditional and emerging marketing strategies and strong content-generation capabilities.
• The selected agency will demonstrate highly responsive and organized account service and management capabilities.
• The selected agency must demonstrate that it can “speak the language” of Generation Z and young Millennials…understanding not only how they consume media but also what creative approaches will appeal to them and capture their attention.

Scope of Work

CCSNH seeks comprehensive services from planning to execution and assessment. Elements will include:

• Strategic planning
• Creative planning, production and execution across a variety of platforms including traditional, digital, social and emerging platforms
• Media planning and buying
• Websites
• Public relations planning and support
• Measurement
• Presentations
• Account service

Proposal due by December 8, 2016

Community College System of NH (CCSNH)
Communications Office 26 College Drive
Concord, NH 03301