Creative and Communication Services

The Vendor is required to provide to develop strategic marketing, communication and outreach plans (plans) that will complement, support and enhance its core business initiatives and outcomes.
- The consultant will be responsible for identifying and recommending data-driven opportunities, strategies, and tactics to promote the agency to diverse audiences, with the goal of increasing agency transit value and engagement. 
- Content Creation and Design
•    Create engaging brand content across various channels to:
o    Extend and optimize agency current brand campaign to help increase brand awareness, understand who agency is and what agency does, building trust in the diverse communities it serves, and grow agency position as a leader in the transit service space.
•    Create and design print, digital, video (e.g., light motion/animation support), and other materials to advocate, educate, inform, and promote agency to employees and the public.
•    Provided on-call copywriting services with a one- to two-week turnaround for standard requests and a 24- to 48-hour turnaround for urgent requests.
•    Provide photography services, as needed.
•    Develop multilingual content strategies for key customer demographics.
- Website Management/ Social Media and Digital Advertising
•    Provide recommendations for agency websites and paid social media content to build recognition, traffic, and reach, and to increase understanding of the agency’s services and programs in conjunction with its marketing and customer communications objectives.
•    Advise and recommend strategies to enhance the integration and alignment of creative assets across various platforms and technologies, including but not limited to digital, print, social media, video, and emerging formats, to ensure consistent branding, streamlined workflows, and improved audience engagement.
•    Strategic implementation of seeding agency information on news aggregators.
•    Research and strategize targeting content towards key audiences such as but not limited to tourists, the elderly, and students – both k-12 and college, and minority communities, consistent with the annual strategy developed by the consultant and staff.
•    Meet web content accessibility guidelines 2.1 AA compliance (required by laws and regulations, like the American disability act) standards for all digital properties.
•    Implement and report on website analytics.
•    Recommend user experience (UX) improvements based on user behavior data.
•    Maintain mobile responsiveness across all digital properties.
•    Updating content within seven business days of approval.
•    Timely website updates coinciding with seasonal campaigns, service changes, and other projects.
•    Demonstrate the ability to navigate and operate the WordPress content management system (CMS) to create, update and maintain website content.
•    Create and develop ongoing paid social media content and campaigns with one to three posts per platform per month. (This may change based on recommendations from the selected consultant).
•    Collaborate with agency staff to ensure consistency between paid and organic social media.
•    Provide monthly analytics reports on campaign performance against established KPIS.
•    Implement a/b (split) testing of creative approaches to optimize engagement.
- Media Planning and Purchasing
•    Negotiate the purchase of advertising, including online, print, television, and other media, consistent with the annual strategy.
•    Provide media value add-ons through negotiated placements.
•    Develop media plans targeting specific rider segments and geographic areas.
•    Report on media effectiveness with recommendations for optimization.
- Budget Management
•    The cost of paid advertising and paid social media will be included in the agreement as a reimbursable item on a monthly basis.
•    The total advertising budget through June 30, 2026, is $430,000. Future budgets will be similar.
•    Consultant must clearly note if there are additional administrative fees, markups, or costs associated with the reimbursable ad budget, and provide detailed monthly reconciliation reports for all advertising expenditures.
- Multicultural and Inclusive Communications
•    Develop and implementing strategies to reach non-English-speaking markets (including Khmer and Spanish), consistent with the brand.
•    Ensure all creative materials reflect the diversity of our ridership.
•    Provide culturally appropriate translations, rather than literal ones, and ensuring all multilingual content is reviewed for cultural nuance, readability and accuracy.
- Customer and General Demographic Research
•    Agency will conduct periodic customer satisfaction and demographic surveys to use as an indication of where customer service improvements are necessary, to define its customers, and identify new potential markets for ridership growth.
•    The consultant will work with agency chosen survey consultants and agency staff to incorporate questions that will provide the data needed (but will not be required to conduct any surveys).
•    Agency staff will require detailed oversight and input from the consultant to get the most out of the data collected by the survey consultants.
- Meeting Schedule and Reporting
•    Conduct weekly or biweekly status calls with the agency manager to provide updates and address ongoing project need.
•    Facilitate monthly strategy sessions with the communications team, held virtually or in person, to align on goals, messaging, and creative direction
•    Lead quarterly in-person performance reviews and strategic planning sessions with the executive team to evaluate outcomes and adjust priorities.
•    Organize and execute two (2) full-day annual strategy workshops to support long-term planning, innovation, and cross-functional alignment.
•    Develop and maintain annual development of a standard service level agreement regarding brand use, quality assurance, and agreed-upon timelines.
•    Generate periodic performance reports that include analysis of campaign performance and audience engagement.
- Collaboration Tools and Processes
•    Utilize tools, reports, and meetings for project tracking and approvals.
•    Follow established brand guidelines for all created materials.
•    Maintain digital asset management system for all creative materials.
•    Implement efficient approval process for all deliverables.
•    Provide all source files upon project completion.

- Contract Period/Term: 3 years
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: August 5, 2025