Strategic Media Planning and Agency Support Services

The Vendor is required to provide comprehensive strategic media planning, buying, and related support services for its marketing campaigns.
- Services includes, but is not limited to, the following key components:
• Strategic Media Planning
• Media Buying & Execution
• Advanced Audience Targeting
• Lead Generation & CRM Integration
• Analytics, Reporting & Optimization
• Collaboration & Creative Input
- Its diverse student body includes dual-credit high school students, recent graduates, and adult learners, reflecting college mission to empower individuals from all backgrounds to achieve their educational goals.
- Strategic Media Planning: Develop an annual integrated media plan to support College enrollment and brand awareness goals under the “Own Your Dreams.” campaign.
- The agency will advise on optimal media mix and timing for reaching prospective students, considering both traditional channels and innovative digital platforms.
- Media Buying & Execution: Execute and manage all paid media placements outlined in the approved media plan. 
• This includes purchasing ad placements across relevant channels such as broadcast television, radio, print, outdoor, and especially digital outlets (search, display, social media advertising, etc.). 
• The agency should leverage its relationships with media vendors to secure efficient rates and added value (bonus spots, sponsorships, etc.) for the College. 
• All media buying must be handled on a consolidated basis – the agency will be responsible for paying media vendors/suppliers and will invoice the College for media expenditures and fees in a streamlined manner (e.g. a single monthly invoice covering all buys). 
• The College expects the agency to monitor ad delivery and adjust as needed to optimize performance throughout each campaign flight.
- Advanced audience targeting: utilize modern, data-driven targeting methods to reach college prospective student audiences with precision. 
• The college is particularly interested in agencies with expertise in geofencing (location-based ad targeting), over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV (CTV) advertising, and programmatic video and display advertising. 
• Tactics should be employed to efficiently engage key demographics (such as high school juniors/seniors, young adults, working adults, etc.) within the service area. 
• Proposers should detail how they will use first-party and third-party data to inform targeting and how they will optimize campaigns in real time.
- Lead generation & CRM integration: a critical focus of this engagement is driving lead generation for student recruitment and ensuring a seamless handoff of leads into college customer relationship management (CRM) system, element451. 
• The agency will be expected to design and manage campaigns (particularly digital campaigns such as social media lead ads, search engine marketing, landing page promotions, etc.) that capture prospective student inquiries. 
• All leads (prospect data) generated should flow directly into the college’s element451 CRM through agreed-upon integrations or API connections, enabling immediate follow-up by the college’s recruitment team. 
• The agency will collaborate with college staff to set up tracking (UTM codes, form captures, etc.) such that each lead is tagged by campaign and source. 
• Additionally, the agency should support segmented audience development – helping define and target sub-audiences (for example, by academic interest, age group, or geography) with tailored messaging to improve conversion rates. 
• Throughout the campaign, the agency will assist in enrollment attribution analysis by linking marketing leads to eventual enrollments in order to gauge the ROI of various media efforts.
- Analytics, reporting & optimization: provide robust performance tracking and reporting on all campaign activities. 
• The agency must measure key metrics for each channel (impressions, clicks, conversions, leads, CPM, CPC, etc. as applicable) and evaluate progress toward campaign goals (such as number of leads, cost per lead, and ultimately enrollments attributed). 
• Regular performance reports (e.g. monthly and post-campaign summaries) are expected, detailing results and insights for both traditional and digital media. 
• Reports should highlight what is working, what is not, and recommendations for optimization.
- Collaboration & analytics: collaboration with the college’s internal analytics and staff is essential – the agency will be required to share raw data and work jointly on analyzing campaign outcomes using the college’s internal data (from element451 and other sources). 
• This collaborative analysis will support deeper insight into how media impressions and leads convert through the enrollment funnel. 
• The agency should be comfortable participating in meetings (virtual or in-person) with college staff to discuss performance and adjust strategies in an agile manner. 
• All reporting should be transparent and align with metrics agreed upon at when flighting media for a campaign.
- Collaboration & creative input: work closely with college relations office (marketing department) and other relevant staff to ensure a unified campaign execution. 
• Creative asset production (e.g. graphic design, video production, copywriting) will be primarily handled in-house by the college; however, the agency is expected to collaborate in the planning stages and provide input on messaging, taglines, content strategy, and campaign structure.
• The selected agency should review and advice on creative materials developed by college to ensure they are optimized for the recommended media channels (for example, advising on lengths of videos for CTV, formats for digital ads, etc.).
- Contract Period/Term: 2 years
- Pre-Proposal Meeting Date: July 01, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: July 09, 2025