State of South Carolina Request for Proposal Marketing and Advertising Agency Services SC Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism (SCPRT)
KAYLA MIDDLETON
803-737-2609
SFAA, Div. of Procurement Services
PO Box 101103
Columbia SC 29201-3734
SUBMIT YOUR OFFER ON-LINE AT THE FOLLOWING URL: http://www.procurement.sc.gov
SUBMIT OFFER BY 5/8/2024 11:00 AM ET (See “Deadline For Submission Of Offer” provision)
link: file:///C:/Users/cbettencourt/Downloads/5400026441.pdf
III. SCOPE OF WORK/SPECIFICATIONS
SCPRT MARKETING FOCUS
The mission of SCPRT is to grow South Carolina’s economy by fostering sustainable tourism, economic development and effectively market the state to increase visitation and improve the quality of life for all South Carolinians. The agency’s vision is to grow the state, to enhance authentic experiences, to sustain the resources and to lead the South Carolina tourism industry. SCPRT’s goals, stated in the broadest form, are to “put heads in beds, feet on fairways and people in parks”.
The South Carolina Legislature provides matching funds to the state’s largest destination marketing organizations (Myrtle
Beach, Charleston, Hilton Head, Columbia, and Greenville) through Destination-Specific Funding. These five primary destinations are expected to receive a combined $27.5 million during FY23-24. While as part of this contract SCPRT will continue to market the state’s primary destinations and tourism products, SCPRT also recognizes the need to spread the benefits of tourism more aggressively across the state by promoting and marketing “undiscovered” areas of South Carolina.
SCPRT’s tourism sales and marketing branding slogan is Discover SouthCarolina. The strategy for promoting
“undiscovered” South Carolina will be developed using the over-arching “Discover” tagline across all SCPRT leisure consumer marketing programs.
“Undiscovered” South Carolina is comprised of destinations – coastal and inland, rural, and urban – that lack the individual resources to create widespread, exposure for their respective tourism attractions, events, and amenities. To accomplish this, SCPRT will continue with a marketing strategy to promote the “undiscovered” areas of South Carolina.
The strategy for promoting “undiscovered” South Carolina should be designed to highlight those destinations and niche product categories that will most directly benefit from awareness generated through SCPRT’s marketing program. In addition to spreading the benefits of tourism across the state, the “undiscovered” South Carolina strategy should help these destinations, product niches and their business communities better realize their full tourism potential.
Clearly, there exists a heightened familiarity of South Carolina’s coastal destinations and tourism assets both in and out-of-state. SCPRT’s expanded goal is to significantly raise awareness of the state’s lesser-known tourism assets to out-of-state and in-state visitor prospects – increasing occupancy levels and visitor spending throughout the state.
SCOPE OF WORK
SCPRT seeks a firm or joint venture with the ability to provide a broad range of marketing and advertising services, including, but not limited to:
Research and strategic planning
Account services
Media planning, evaluation, negotiation, and purchasing for Domestic and International markets
Ad trafficking across all types of media
Creative and production services for traditional and digital mediums and emerging mediums
Cooperative advertising programs
Interactive media
Digital marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Marketing
Printed collateral production
Industry relations
Web development and maintenance
Web tracking/reporting
Mobile and mobile application development and maintenance
Mobile tracking and reporting
Public relations services
Social media, analytics tracking and reporting
Social media advertising
Photography services and video production
Campaign tracking, measurement, and reporting
Subcontracting for goods and services as necessary to execute SCPRT marketing programs
Accounting, billing, invoice reconciliation
Other marketing services as identified
The Contractor (Agency of Record) must:
1. Assist in development of a marketing and advertising strategy to grow tourism in the state among the domestic general consumer market. With an emphasis on promoting “undiscovered” South Carolina, utilize traditional, non-traditional, and digital advertising, digital media, mobile applications and other emerging digitally base strategies, public relations, social media, special events, and other to-be-identified proven and/or emerging marketing strategies. (NOTE: SCPRT operates on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year, and all planning and spending will coincide with the fiscal year cycle. All media is purchased at NET Cost)
2. Monitor, stay knowledgeable of, and keep SCPRT informed regarding consumer, marketing, and other trends that may be relevant to SCPRT’s marketing programs.
3. Develop, implement, and measure an annual marketing and advertising program that drives consumption of South Carolina’s golf products.
4. Support the management of international sales and marketing efforts in Canada, the UK, Germany, and other targeted international markets by planning and purchasing media, producing creative and collateral, website design, and providing other marketing support as required. This work will be coordinated through SCPRT’s International Sales Manager in Columbia, SC, and will – in addition to developing and initiating independent sales and marketing programming – leverage marketing opportunities offered by the regional marketing organization as Travel South USA, and the national marketing organization, Brand USA.
5. Assist in the development, implementation, measurement and refinement of an integrated marketing and
advertising program that drives consumption of SC State Park amenities, lodging, campsites, Atalaya Arts &
Crafts Festival, Founders Hall, the Legare Waring House and all other state park inventory in order to increase State Park revenue and help achieve the goal of self-sustainability.
6. Support the SC Film Office as needed with creative services, media planning and purchasing, website
maintenance, design and development as needed to be consistent with the brand and other marketing services as identified.
7. Support the Venues at Arsenal Hill (SC Lace House, Caldwell Boylston House, The Carriage House, and the
grounds and gardens) as needed with creative services, media planning and purchasing, website maintenance, design and development as needed to be consistent with the brand and other marketing services as identified.
8. Develop all creative materials as needed for specific campaigns and program areas, including, but not limited to “undiscovered” South Carolina, golf, international markets, state parks, public relations, Venues at Arsenal Hill, the SC Film Office and/or any SCPRT program area.
9. Hire all talent for unlimited use to include print, broadcast, digital, internet, outdoor, editorial, and any medium not yet developed. However, if the unlimited time-period is cost prohibitive, the rights should be negotiated for a minimum of five years. SCPRT only hires talent on a non-union basis.
10. Photography should be contracted for unlimited time period and unlimited usage to include print, digital, social, broadcast, internet, outdoor, editorial, and any medium not yet developed. It is understood that the photographer will retain the copyright of the images and that photographer will have the right to use images for promotion of his services, however, no stock usage is allowed. (Images cannot be sold by SCPRT or AOR for 3rd party use unless contracted for all rights with photographer.) However, if the unlimited time-period is cost prohibitive in either case above, the rights should be negotiated for a minimum of five years and record of this limitation should be accurately associated with the digital version of the asset(s).
11. Provide creative development and other support as needed for any/all SCPRT programs and projects, including but not limited to creative support for the annual SC State Highway Map produced in cooperation with the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), the annual SC “Discover” Vacation Guide, E-newsletters (general leisure, golf and state parks, both primarily managed internally), PGA Partnership, Governors Conference, International programming, Welcome Center Guest book and digital signage, State Park Service collateral material and signage, the BBQ Trail Map, Satisfy Your Thirst Map; State House brochures, and any other SCPRT collateral materials.
12. Collaborate, when required, with all vendors with whom SCPRT contracts directly. Collaboration with these vendors will be required during the contract period. Examples include contract print vendor for SC State Highway Map, fulfillment contract vendor for the SC Vacation Guide and other printed collateral.
13. Provide design, front and back-end development, programming, management and maintenance activities, digital project management, quality assurance, tracking and analytics reporting support for SCPRT websites as necessary to support SCPRT’s marketing goals and objectives. SCPRT’s websites are written in ASP.net/C# with SQL Server 2008 as the database. These are also SCPRT development standards.
Collaborate as appropriate with SCPRT’s Information Technology department. AOR must adhere to SCPRT’s
security policies and procedures. SCPRT requires an annual review and acknowledgement of these polices with a written signature. Non-compliance will result in termination of access to SCPRT’s internal resources.
SCPRT’s primary sites include:
14. Provide management and oversite of all content production related to the Discover Writer program and
DiscoverSouthCarolina.com. Activities include content uploads, tracking program deliverables, proofreading,
SEO review and optimization, abstract and headline development, image correction, monthly and quarterly
content updates.
15. Develop cooperative advertising programs in coordination with SCPRT that meet the marketing objectives of tourism partners who may have limited financial resources. SCPRT will manage the sale of co-op advertising associated with the media plan, social media, e-newsletters, websites and Welcome Center advertising. Agency of Record will communicate with CRM vendor on all necessary updates to the online co-op sales form.
All partner co-op ad materials will be trafficked to the respective media partners by Agency of Record using SCPRT’s digital asset management system as the medium for collecting and transferring assets. The Agency of Record will traffic and track/report back to co-op partners on all paid advertising. The Agency of Record will traffic and coordinate Welcome Center Program Advertising with installation vendor and manage installation vendor relationship.
16. In the event of a natural or man-made disaster that could impact tourism in South Carolina, the Agency of Record will be called on to develop crisis-specific messaging, creative, and plan and implement a crisis-specific media plan in a timely fashion.
17. Develop, support, and execute a comprehensive public and media relations program with the SCPRT Public Relations Manager. The Agency of Record may rely on qualified in-house public relations personnel for the public relations component or a qualified public relations firm through a subcontract between the Agency of Record and the proposed public relations firm.
SCPRT seeks a public relations program that:
Interacts reactively and proactively with media to secure positive editorial exposure for South Carolina’s tourism product.
Monitors media trends and identifies appropriate opportunities for South Carolina to pursue.
Generates story ideas and assists with pitching approved ideas and provides support with media requests for information, assistance, photography, and video.
Applies current best practices while implementing an ROI/tracking system for earned media.
Develops media events in both Domestic and International targeted markets.
Provides support for the development and implementation of media familiarization tours for domestic and
international media, including traditional media and social media.
Develops and implements an on-going communication program for targeted media such as a monthly South Carolina e-news briefing (or other mechanism) of what’s new, what’s trending, hot stories, etc.
Provides updated content, images, and information to the SCPRT online media room,
Attends tradeshows and conferences with or on behalf of SCPRT for the purpose of staffing media
marketplace events.
Provides support of the SC Chef Ambassador program.
18. Collaborate as necessary with the SCPRT Research Section on such projects as market viability analysis, media and creative-related consumer research, advertising effectiveness, SC State Parks advertising effectiveness, and other projects as identified.
19. Research trademark and URL issues as necessary prior to the introduction of new concepts and collaborate with SCPRT team members to secure trademarks as needed.
20. Retain all records relating to the contract for a period of five (5) fiscal years (July 1 – June 30) past the contract end date. All records including, but not limited to billing records, jobs files, bank records, cancelled checks, including hard copy and digital records. Contractor is subject to audit by the State Fiscal Accountability Authority, Division of Procurement Services or the SC Department of Administration, Office of State Auditor or SCPRT.
21. On an ongoing basis, add ALL original creative assets, and all program files created or edited within the past twelve (12) months to SCPRT’s digital asset management system upon completion.
22. SCPRT has invested financial resources and developed integral programming with and through several
service providers with whom SCPRT will continue to work to advance SCPRT’s sales and marketing efforts.
The Agency of Record will be required to engage with these vendors and use the established resources:
The digital asset management (DAM) system is a key component in the SCPRT workflow and online
publishing outlets. The DAM centralizes SCPRT’s videos, images, documents, and creative files in one
powerful hub. Currently containing more than 40,000 assets, both in real-time retrieval and off-line
storage environments, the DAM serves images and advertising to SCPRT websites and serves as a digital
archive. It also allows the agency to share our visual catalogues with partners and vendors when required.
The Agency of Record will provide management and maintenance activities for the DAM including any
support needs for the SCPRT websites and the DAM vendor’s support and programming teams, under the
direction of SCPRT.
SCPRT’s publishing partner for the SC Vacation Guide. The publishing company handles the advertising
sales, editorial development, design, and printing. The Agency of Record will work cooperatively with
the publishing partner staff and SCPRT staff, providing editorial input, design input based on SCPRT
brand standards, and other input as required.
Along with the SC Vacation Guide, the SC State Highway Map is used as part of the fulfillment package
mailed to consumers requesting vacation information on the state. SCPRT contracts directly with a
printing vendor for the printing of a total of 650,000 SC State Highway Maps annually for distribution.
The GIS map files are obtained from SCDOT. All design and composition is handled by the Agency of
Record. Communication and coordination is required between the Agency of Record, DOT and contract
printer throughout the production, printing and delivery of the final printed SC State Highway Map.
The SC Vacation Guide and South Carolina State Highway Map together serve as travel planning tools
and are mailed to consumers who respond to the state’s advertising and/or who request a SC Vacation
Guide through the state’s website or other communication channels. The SC Vacation Guide and South
Carolina State Highway Map are also distributed at the state’s nine welcome centers, travel trade shows
and are provided to other tourism industry partners for distribution. SCPRT contracts directly with a
South Carolina-based fulfillment center/mail house to provide professional fulfillment services to
warehouse, track inventory, bulk ship, and mail all of South Carolina’s printed collateral.
23. SCPRT utilizes a CRM marketing platform for the following:
Email Service Provider
Custom microsite and landing page for the collection of consumer data requests for the SC Vacation Guide
Electronic data distribution to SCPRT contract fulfillment services vendor
Reader Service consumer leads collection and fulfillment distribution
Cooperative advertising partner participation form
Welcome Center digital guest book data collection and reporting
Welcome Center satisfaction survey data collection and reporting
Custom CRM platform for SC State Parks Charlestowne Landing Venues
Implementation and ongoing use of the current provider is facilitated by Marketing Cloud partner. The
Agency of Record will provide interactive project management and quality assurance to ensure
implementation of any/all CRM project goals are met with the support of the development partner.
SCPRT will be the sole judge of contracts that will be carried forward with the new Agency of Record.
24. Upload new photo images and video files to SCPRT’s cloud-based DAM management system within
thirty (30) calendar days of photography completion. Files uploaded should contain original file name,
photographer, copyright information, use and time period, and talent rights including talent name/agent,
use, and time period and all other relevant metadata pertaining to the asset.
25. Be liable for any misuse of any SCPRT assets that are provided by the Agency of Record to third parties.
Liability for any assets that an SCPRT employee provides to a third party will rest with SCPRT.
26. Fulfill outside requests for photography and video in a timely manner and in compliance with SCPRT’s guidelines.
Outside requests must be reviewed and approved by an appropriate member of the SCPRT Sales and Marketing team.
27. All media requests for photography and video must be approved by the SCPRT Public Relations Manager and will be filled immediately upon request. SCPRT will absorb hard costs associated with fulfilling approved media requests for images and b-roll.
28. Be prepared to make oral or written presentations regarding SCPRT’s marketing campaigns at meetings,
conferences, or other events as requested. The Agency of Record must seek prior permission from SCPRT’s
Director of Sales and Marketing before addressing any formal or informal meetings on behalf of SCPRT regarding SCPRT marketing programs.
29. Defer ALL news media queries to SCPRT’s Director of Sales and Marketing and/or Communications Director without exception.
30. Provide a senior account team leader to serve as a single point of contact to SCPRT’s Sales and Marketing Office personnel. The Agency of Record will provide and identify a back-up contact. SCPRT retains the right to approve personnel replacements in the event of staffing changes in key management positions during the duration of the contract.
31. Provide account supervision, documentation, and communication with SCPRT on the status and timeline of all projects requested by SCPRT. Provide the necessary reports, estimates, accounting documentation, and other financial information as necessary to comply with the contract payment terms and conditions. Provide monthly account management reports, including progress reports and budget reports itemized by project.
32. Prepare and provide summary meeting minutes for all meetings.
33. Send a minimum of three (3) account team members to the annual South Carolina Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Travel. SCPRT will reimburse for registration and travel expenses for the three (3) attendees.
Additional attendees will be addressed on a case-by-case basis each year.
34. Provide partnership support to the annual South Carolina Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Travel at the $5,000 partnership level and will be entitled to all associated partnership benefits as defined in the conference sponsor benefits package.
35. Not commence work on any project in connection with duties described in the Scope of Services before submitting a quote of the total project cost and receiving written and/or electronic (e-mail) approval for each project by the appropriate SCPRT representative. Revised estimates must be furnished to SCPRT based on changes requested by SCPRT or due to changes generated by other causes. SCPRT can cancel any projects scheduled under this scope of work due to non-availability of funds.
36. Provide quotes for goods and services to be procured on behalf of SCPRT, except when a service is unique and only provided by a specific vendor such as membership fees or unique partnership opportunities.
37. Provide a thorough written budget review, including account time review to SCPRT Sales and Marketing
Director and Advertising Manager on a monthly basis.
38. Agree that any and all rights, title, and interest whatsoever in the items in Part 3 Scope of Work, provided by the Agency of Record or any of its subcontractors, will lie exclusively with SCPRT, except as may otherwise be approved by written agreement of the parties to this contract.
39. Coordinate activities, as appropriate, and as directed by SCPRT, with other contracted firms, as well as other State
agencies, and other State, regional, national, or international tourism promotion or development organizations. This
may include participation in routine meetings and planning sessions and attendance or participation in selected state, national or international travel-related meetings, conferences, and tradeshows.
40. Procure goods and services on behalf of SCPRT as necessary to implement SCPRT’s marketing programs. Not markup goods and services purchased on behalf of SCPRT. Fully disclose and credit to SCPRT all discounts, rebates, refunds, and special offers allowed by suppliers of goods and services purchased on behalf of SCPRT.
41. Provide program performance reporting on a monthly, quarterly, and/or annual basis as
requested by SCPRT.
42. Travel expenses associated with travel to and from routine meetings by all representatives of the Agency of Record will be reimbursed at SC State per diem rates for meals and at the established business standard mileage rate. The Agency of Record representatives should make every attempt to adhere to federal per diem for lodging. SCPRT reserves the right to require pre-approval of all travel and lodging expenses to be submitted for reimbursement.
43. As a South Carolina state government entity, SCPRT cannot agree to any indemnification clauses. As such, any/all contracts and agreements entered into by the Agency of Record on behalf of SCPRT must be reviewed and edited to remove any/all indemnification language before SCPRT approves any/all contracts and agreements. Or the Agency of Record must include the following statement in any/all contracts and agreements as an addendum:
Agency of Record expressly assumes all indemnity obligations pursuant to the terms of this contract. Failure to identify and/or remove indemnification language may result in termination of contract.
44. SCPRT is a service-intensive client. The Agency of Record must understand the inner workings and needs of such a client and have the capability and experience to provide a high level of quality account service no matter what timelines or deadlines are imposed. In that SCPRT can have needs that require attention 24-hours, 7-days-a-week, the Agency of Record must be willing to do whatever is necessary to meet SCPRT’s definition and demand for quality account service without regard to conventional or traditional account expectations.
Transition Terms:
1. Media planning for the upcoming fiscal year takes p
B. Electronic Delivery Required: As noted on the solicitation cover sheet, proposals must be electronically delivered through the Smartsheet link by the specified FIRM deadline.Physical submissions shall not be accepted.
C. Initial Evaluation and Oral Presentations: Proposals will be evaluated againstcriteria specified below in this solicitation, after which Offerors may be invited to participate in oral presentations.
D. Discussions/Negotiations, Final Offers and Selection: Following initial evaluationsand oral presentations (if applicable), discussions and/or negotiations with at least the toptwo Offerors may occur. If so, these Offerors shall be invited to submit any writtenchanges to their proposals and a final selection decision shall be made based on the initialproposals, oral presentations (if applicable) and any negotiated, written changes toproposals.
E. Final Contract: Once a final selection decision has been made, VCU will work with thechosen Offeror to finalize the terms and conditions of the contract. The VCU Contract is included as an attachment to this solicitation and will be the contract form.
F. Each of the above steps is described below in detail. It is incumbent upon all Offerors to read the entire solicitation to understand the entire solicitation process.