Roanoke Valley Seeking a Public Relations Firm

The Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority (RVBA) has issued an RFP seeking a Public Relations and Marketing firm as they seek to broaden community awareness of the RVBA’s mission, operating practices, and successes. Contractor will develop new strategies to measure and promote the authority’s community impact and coordinate with allies in both the public and private sector to uncover new opportunities for network expansion and economic growth for the region. The selected contractor will manage and expand upon existing brand identity, communications and lead generation strategies to maintain a healthy relationship between the RVBA, its founding members, the local business community, and the public at large.

Background:

The Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority (RVBA) was founded in 2014 with the purpose of providing the region’s first open-access fiber-optic broadband internet network. The authority was started by four local municipalities at the request of local businesses leaders. The RVBA serves Salem City, Roanoke City, Roanoke County, and Botetourt County. With the goal of improving economic development prospects for the region, the RVBA aims to increase access to enterprise quality broadband and work tougher with the private sector to deliver higher speeds, greater capacity, and competitive prices to businesses across the region.

The RVBA developed and maintains a redundant regional network “ring” that supports schools, industrial parks, and other significant economic centers. Currently, the RVBA is working on a phase 2 network expansion into Roanoke County. With this RFP, the RVBA seeks to contract with a full-service marketing and communications contractor to manage lead generation, attract media coverage, develop external messaging strategies, execute educational public affairs campaigns, develop multi-media content, manage websites and social media, and maintain brand integrity.

The ideal candidate will be a full-service communications consultancy familiar with the authority’s history and committed to the projects long term economic impact on the region. Preference will be given to SWAM-certified contractors with proven past performance in the broadband and/or telecommunications industry. Experience promoting municipal broadband in the Commonwealth of Virginia is highly preferred. Political message management, and both state and national issue management and matrixed stakeholder coordination experience are also considered highly valuable.

Scope of Work:

PR Message Management

The successful agency must educate local media contacts on all things broadband. This includes technical workings of the Roanoke Valley network, organizational operating procedures, the current political environment, new regional innovations and capabilities, strategic partnerships, client successes and more. Tasks include: List  Management, Relationship Building, Media Briefings, Press Conference Planning, Messaging Strategy, Custom Content Development, Coverage Tracking, and impact analysis.

Lead Generation:

The successful agency will develop pragmatic strategies that will cost effectively identify and attract and convert appropriate new customers according to the RVBA’s founding mission.

Asset Development:

The successful agency will have a team of full service creative experts (editorial, graphic design, multimedia) ready and available to develop a portfolio of high quality custom assets to manage community understanding of the RVBA project, drive net new sales, promote regional expansion, and maintain positive public perception.

Brand Management:

The successful agency will have existing processes and procedures in place to manage the existing brand and ensure the consistent quality of all published materials.

Additional Services Required:

• Maintain an SEO optimized, and mobile responsive website
• Develop sales support materials and a clear, scalable customer communications strategy
• Develop new material templates and brand compliant collateral to promote the network and associated services to each prioritized target market
• Manage brand to ensure all published content accurately and clearly reflects the RVBA’s prioritized messages, communications strategy and growth goals
• Manage an official image library and usage policy for RVBA, municipality, and community partners
• Develop and manage a clear social media campaign aligned to, and complementary of, the communication efforts already undertaken by the four municipalities that support and manage the RVBA
• Develop case studies and log testimonials in partnership with key vendors
• Work with local municipal communications teams to drive a national promotions strategy and earn media attention for the region
• Consult on with RVBA staff on best-practices in growth operations, sales, marketing, messaging, customer relations, public affairs, and proper brand application.

Due Date:

June 9th, 2017.

Address:

Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority (RVBA)

601 S. Jefferson St. #110

Roanoke, VA 24011

French-West-Vaughan is a leading Virginia based PR firm.