Brand Management Services

The Vendor is required to provide brand management services contract will provide support for all agency programs and services.
- The company will serve as an extension of this team to develop campaigns to elevate awareness, build trust, and drive engagement with agency services and initiatives through integrated marketing and media campaigns that promote service, transparency, safety, and community collaboration—ensuring all residents understand, value, and utilize the region’s mobility solutions.
- Develop inclusive, culturally relevant marketing campaigns to promote agency services across diverse audiences, including multilingual and underserved communities. 
- Produce advertising content, service guides, and digital/social assets that clearly communicate programs such as fare discounts, paratransit features, and service expansions/reductions.
- These may include, but are not limited to, the following:
•    Brand Management, Advertising, and Marketing
•    Public Relations and Engagement Strategy
•    Creative, Promotional, and Messaging Material Development
•    Digital Marketing
•    Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Driven Marketing
•    Administrative Function, Tracking, and Measurement
- Brand Management / Advertising and Marketing:
•    Developing advertising and marketing tactics, including but not limited to, paid advertising and placement (including value-added), with placement justification on why the proposed ad buy is cost-effective and the best representation of the agency with its goals and mission;
•    Producing strategic project-specific advertising, marketing, media and engagement plans to strategically support major initiatives that include traditional and paid media, digital media, traditional and paid social media, and community events;
•    Executing overall strategic direction for the campaign (goals, objectives, geographies, targeting segments, creative messaging strategy, etc.);
•    Determining target audience insights and consumption habits based on syndicated research, historical campaign results and knowledge of the agency brand;
•    Proposing targeted market research and consumer insights into specific market segments, consumer behaviors, and competitive landscapes through primary and secondary research methodologies;
•    Providing detailed strategic digital media plan and rationale deck, highlighting strategy, tactics, evaluation criteria, partner slides, success metrics and next steps, including pixel strategy and best practices for implementing, site refresh schedule that may impact pixel placement;
•    Providing media recommendations and market research, including media trends, market conditions, consumer testing and competitive spending and demographics/psychographics data;
•    Identifying outside partnerships and relationships to negotiate trade promotions to demonstrate added value being provided to the agency, and activate strategic partnership and sponsorship opportunities.
•    Gathering insights and information from community groups through surveys, focus groups and targeted conversations to inform agency branding strategies.
- Public Relations and Engagement Strategy:
•    Leading and counseling on public-facing messaging for all agency campaigns and initiatives, including strategic pitch documents and articles.
•    Providing media training for agency staff;
•    Providing strategic counsel and support during crisis situations, including yearly updates to crisis communication plans;
•    Implementing media monitoring, listening, and tracking for agency -related inquiries and campaign performance;
•    Engaging multicultural organizations and chambers of commerce in projects and events to inform and educate;
•    Collaborating with economic development stakeholders (e.g., chambers of commerce, regional partnerships) to amplify joint initiatives and business-facing campaigns;
•    Gathering information and proposing community events and initiatives with which agency should partner or participate;
•    Staffing identified community and business events and acting as agency representatives.
- Creative, Promotional and Messaging Material Development:
•    Developing campaigns, including, but not limited to, research and consumer testing, logo design, messaging, branding, brand guidelines, media strategy, engagement strategy, campaign development and copywriting;
•    Building promotional material, including but not limited to, video production; graphic elements such as logos, maps, brochures, posters, and other collateral materials; messaging elements such as talking points, press releases, fact sheets, etc.
•    Providing total-market, strategic, creative services to include development of conceptual creative directions and fully integrated campaigns and campaign management;
•    Assisting in maintaining comprehensive agency brand style guide and managing its evolution;
•    Providing production services to update or enhance existing agency materials including, but not limited to, transit guide, pocket guide, transit strip brochure, general signage, maps, brochures, fliers, posters, fact sheets, programs, etc.;
•    Copywriting services for ads, collateral, videos and radio spots;
•    Translation services for multilingual ads and news articles at no additional cost to the agency;
•    Developing and designing effective creative for social media (twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.)
•    Managing print production schedule and press checks as requested;
•    Providing digital assets such as fonts, stock photography and music used in campaigns;
•    Selecting brand-appropriate stock photography and recommending use, and creating photo composites as requested;
•    Creating photo shoot concepts and recommendations to correlate with the new brand direction, annually; recommend photographers, gather bids and select photographer; work with the photographer on site during shoot to provide art direction and guidance;
•    Developing merchandising, branding and creative services;
•    Developing and creating videos and social media clips of special events and projects promoting the agency, including event recaps, promotional pieces and more;
•    Filming b-roll and stock footage of agency assets as requested;
•    Photographing agency assets as requested;
•    Providing media training, as requested, along with proposed questions, responses and strategies;
•    Providing recommended media and messaging strategies on an annual basis and if facing public criticism, service disruptions or crises;
•    Implementing special projects and initiatives, as needed, through ad-hoc marketing, advertising, or creative projects outside the scope of ongoing campaigns but are aligned with the agency overall goals;
•    Developing messaging that highlights agency role in supporting regional economic growth.
- Digital Marketing:
•    Developing websites and strategic advertising efforts;
•    Recommending website design strategies and web best practices;
•    Providing analytic audit and SEO recommendation of agency website on a bi-monthly basis;
•    Developing a custom WordPress theme for the agency website and any additional project-specific landing pages or microsites, and work with the agency web team to implement and launch;
•    Executing search engine marketing (SEM) in the form of a google AdWords campaign and other SEM tactics including but not limited to Bing and yahoo;
•    Creating, executing and managing online display ad campaigns targeted to our respective audiences per campaign which may entail run of site (ROS) tactics, as well as contextual, predictive and other viable tactics to enhance our efficient reach through digital media including native advertising, video advertising (pre-roll, in-feed, post-roll, etc.), cross device and cross-platform opportunities;
•    Creating promotional microsites as appropriate per promotional campaign;
•    Creating videos as requested;
•    Creating copy for website as needed;
•    Creating collateral for posting (e.g., cover photos, profile photo, etc.);
•    Providing media recommendations and market research including media trends, market conditions, consumer testing and competitive spending and demographics/psychographics data;
•    Defining campaign key performance indicators (KPIS), creative vision, any limitations or needs such as html5, vast-compliance and assistance with creative development and production;
•    Developing meaningful content, including blog stories and social media content, highlighting various community segments and agency initiatives;
•    Recommending boosted or paid social media promotions, per initiative, to include, but not limited to, branding the agency, informing audiences about projects, or collecting surveys.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Driven Marketing
•    Company will leverage cutting-edge technologies to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing and advertising efforts.
•    Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities for enhanced ad optimization, predictive audience analytics, dynamic creative optimization, and automated campaign management;
•    Developing and implementing custom algorithms and models for data analysis, trend identification, and performance forecasting;
•    Exploring and recommending emerging technologies that can further enhance agency marketing reach and impact;
•    Consulting and implementing advanced data visualization tools to provide deeper insights into campaign performance and audience behavior;
•    Ongoing research and development to ensure the agency marketing strategies remain at the forefront of technological advancements;
•    Advising on digital transformation within the marketing and advertising landscape, including best practices for data governance, privacy compliance, and ethical AI usage;
•    Training and knowledge transfer sessions for agency staff on new technologies and analytical methodologies implemented;
•    Exploring use of predictive analytics to identify emerging trends in transportation and regional development, and tailoring messaging to attract economic interest in agency -supported areas.
- Administrative Function, Tracking, Performance and measurement
•    Budget development and monitoring;
•    Billing coordination;
•    Integrated reporting and optimization;
•    Digital tracking and measurement on an as-needed basis (e.g., weekly, monthly or quarterly);
•    Analysis of trends, opportunities, and campaign effectiveness, results and recommendations of other strategies as compared to overall established and pre-agreed annual goals;
•    Web server hosting services and maintenance;
•    General advertising metrics (i.e. CPM, CPP, etc.) From a third-party ad server for digital media campaigns;
•    Audits, verifications, return on investment analysis, and proof of purchase (pop);
•    Online analytics of SEM campaign (PPC, CPM, etc.)
•    Online analytics of any lifecycle marketing campaign (open rate, click through rate, etc.)
•    Running list of work completed over the last month;
•    Media monitoring, tracking and listening;
•    Daily media sweeps;
•    Quarterly reviews, milestone check-ins, and performance benchmarks on campaigns, projects and initiatives to re-evaluate strategy.
•    Results of overall marketing, media and engagement activities and tracking of any promotional campaign (offer redemption, etc. Provided such metrics are available)
•    Yearly calendar to assist with budget, media placement, event planning and general campaign implementation.

- Questions/Inquires Deadline: October 06, 2025