Marketing and Advertising Services

The vendor is required to provide marketing and advertising services for marketing campaigns paired with strategic communications efforts that deepen engagement with a wide range of diverse audiences and stakeholders.
•    Marketing and brand strategy – responsible for brand messaging, positioning, paid media campaigns, enrollment marketing strategies, CRM management, email marketing and social media strategy 
•    Communications and media relations – responsible for public relations, storytelling, media outreach, earned media strategies, internal communications and crisis communications. 
•    Creative services – responsible for creating dynamic on-brand collateral through graphic design, photography and digital media 
•    Digital strategy – responsible for the university website content strategy, user experience design, information architecture, SEO strategy, audience behavior tracking, and analysis of all online channels.
- Major primary tasks
1. Integrated, multi-channel marketing plans
•    Contractor shall be engaged to develop, plan, execute and optimize multi-channel marketing plans with consideration to audience(s), goal(s) and budget. 
•    With a primary focus on enrollment marketing efforts, contractor shall provide the university with data-driven strategic marketing while delivering ROI and generating ticketed revenue. 
•    Produce creative and strategic briefs in advance of all campaigns. 
•    Produce comprehensive post-campaign performance documentation for all marketing campaigns.
2. Media buying 
•    University will rely on contractor to be the primary media buyer for enrollment marketing and athletics marketing campaigns. 
•    Developing strategies to reach targeted audiences within a defined budget and be responsible for negotiating, purchasing and billing of advertising placements. 
•    While some media buying will be retained in-house, the contractor is the primary purchaser of media.
3. Creative asset and ad development
•    The primary creator of advertising creative and collateral used in multi-channel marketing campaigns. 
•    Create compelling, targeted creative that leads to action by the audience. 
•    The ability to create on-brand assets with excellent copy, engaging design, captivating motion and animation, layered audio and unique visuals is critical. 
•    Creative shouldn’t just attract attention but lead to engagement. 
•    Contractor will be especially adept at digital asset creation, motion-graphics and video content.
4. Website’s design and development
•    Utilize expertise in planning, designing and developing successful websites, microsites and campaign landing pages – both standalone properties and as part of an institution’s existing digital ecosystem. 
•    University will engage contractor to design and develop sites as needed for a variety of purposes. 
•    Utilize web programming languages (html, CSS, JavaScript,), website architecture, user-centered design principles, website governance and CMS platforms, and experience user testing websites. 
•    The university currently uses omni-CMS (formerly university campus) for its main website and contractor may be called upon to collaborate and design with modern campus, the company that created this CMS, as well as internal design, development, content and usability teams. 
•    The university uses WordPress CMS for smaller ancillary sites, and contractor may be required to provide both client- and server-side programming (e.g., php) to support projects on this platform as well. 
5. SEM support
•    provide university with expertise to support both digital marketing and website traffic on all major search engines utilizing in-depth understanding in search engine marketing (SEM).
- Minor secondary tasks
1. Email marketing
•    Called upon to assist with internal and external email marketing efforts utilizing targeted and compelling email content, design and delivery.
2. Print and direct mail 
•    Engage with print publications and direct mail marketing. 
•    Contractor will utilize print design and development, if called upon to assist with enrollment, development or athletics mailings.
3. Owned channel support and signage 
•    Called upon to support owned channel strategy development and on campus messaging. contractor will be adept at creating, developing and producing display advertising and environmental graphics including, but not limited to: flags, banners, building signage, promotional products, apparel and more.
4. SEO and local SEO 
•    Support and aide in search engine optimization (SEO), especially as it relates to local SEO practices (e.g., localized, google my business, google maps). 
•    utilize knowledge in SEO best practices to assist with strategies that will improve search engine performance of any site they help to design and implement.
- Advertising placements and third-party billing
1. Billing
•    Contractor will pay direct costs to advertising companies for print, radio, television, digital, out-of-home and other types of advertising placements based on annual marketing budgets and will not include any agency commission. 
•    Contractor is responsible for paying third-party advertisers based on their terms and the university will be billed to reimburse the contractor for all digital and traditional placements. 
•    Placement costs will be separate from creative, production and administrative hours spent to plan, create, execute and optimize advertising. 
•    The university separately for all third-party advertisers and include documentation in the form of insertion orders to receive payment.
2. Separated costs 
•    All third-party advertising costs, which will make up the largest portion of the contract, shall remain separate from the services (creative and production hours) in the contract. 
•    Record-keeping of creative and production hours separates from third-party advertising.

- Contract Period/Term: 5 years
- Pre-Bid/Proposal Conference Date: August 28, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: September 5, 2025