Under the new visionary leadership of President Mark Kennedy, UND is enhancing its marketing and communications efforts, including digital marketing and its online presence. UND has awarded two separate contracts related to these efforts: one for a comprehensive website redesign (vendor is MStoner) and the other for the creation of a University-wide brand strategy and supporting creative/style guidelines (vendor is SME).
Vendors for these contracts were selected, awarded and work has begun. Although these website and branding contracts are not directly part of this video contract, they will impact the video messaging and creative elements. The videos will be used in a variety of channels, including the new website, and will be used to launch UND’s new branding strategy.
Scope of Work:
UND is seeking a video production company to serve as a strategic partner in developing creative concepts, planning, production and execution of a series of branded videos.
Goals/Objectives:
Through these videos, UND seeks to introduce its new brand, increase awareness to support recruitment efforts, and grow undergraduate and graduate enrollment for the Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 incoming classes.
Deliverables
The Contractor will provide a detailed plan and phased timeline of how it will allocate $200,000 to produce a minimum of:
1. Two :30 broadcast spots by August/September 2017
- The primary purpose of the broadcast spots will be to increase brand awareness and generate inquiries from prospective students.
- They will be the general public’s main exposure to the brand through TV/video.
2. One campus visit video by August/September 2017
- The primary purpose of this video is to encourage prospective students visiting UND to take the next step in applying to and enrolling at UND.
- The goal is to give students a strong emotional connection to the university by sharing the stories and experiences that might not otherwise see/hear as part of the campus tour.
- The video will be approximately 3 minutes in length.
- A sample of the current video is found here: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=Cs_dsuKynVM
3. Five to six recruitment videos for the website, social media, email by approximately October 2017
- The primary purpose of these videos will be to motivate prospective students to take the next step in the recruitment cycle by requesting more information, scheduling a campus visit, or applying to the university.
- They will be branded overview videos that highlight UND’s new brand promise by showcasing academic and student life experiences as well as alumni success at UND.
- Each video will be approximately 90 seconds in length.
4. Five looping background videos for a responsive website by approximately June 2018
- Create 30 seconds or less looping videos to grab attention on key landing pages.
- Videos should avoid excessive movement and be compressed as much as possible to not affect website load times.
Value Add-Ons
Beyond the minimum requirements, UND would also like for the Contractors to have the ability to deliver the following:
1. Three academic-focused videos highlighting why students should be interested in specific field of studies. These videos would create a “template” that UND’s internal video team would follow to create one video per academic program.
2. Video digital ads
3. Access to raw video files for future use by the university
The Contractor will:
- Schedule video project kick-off meetings with UND team.
- Revise draft scripts for client approval and finalize format for production.
- Provide storyboards for client approval.
- Provide cinematography and creative treatment for client approval.
- Identify video shoot locations.
- Coordinate any video shoots not held in Grand Forks, ND.
- Identify acting and/or voiceover talent options and provide a shortlist of recommendations for client approval.
- Provide licensed music recommendations for client approval.
- Follow UND identity and branding guidelines.
- Shoot, edit and publish videos for client approval. It is anticipated that UND will have at least three rounds of edits before approval.
- Provide closed captioning services.
- Provide access to all raw video files for future use by the University.
To support the proposed video production, the Contractor can expect UND to:
- Identify the goal, purpose, audience, desired length, deadline, and distribution channel(s) for each video project.
- Collaborate with Contractor on creative vision and concepts in video project kick-off meeting(s).
- Write draft scripts based upon creative vision.
- Coordinate on-campus locations and talent as requested by the Contractor.
- Serve as campus escort for production team during on-campus shoots.
- Make final voiceover and music selections based on Contractor’s recommendations.
- Participate in voiceover recording sessions as necessary.
- Work with campus resources to provide necessary b-roll footage and/or photography to complete the project, including aerial drone footage.
- Provide all final artwork for the project in accordance to UND identity guidelines and specifications provided by the Contractor.
- Distribute final videos to UND’s media channels.
Proposal due on May 19 to:
University of North Dakota Purchasing Office
Request for Proposal (RFP): Video Production Services RFP Number: 141-2017
264 Centennial Dr. Stop 8381 Grand Forks, ND 58202
Strong education focused PR firms is APCO Worldwide and Burson-Marsteller.