Integrated Marketing and Communications Services

The vendor is required to provide integrated communications, public relations, and marketing partner to support the college’s brand awareness, reputation management, and marketing efforts.
- Three primary areas of support: communications/public relations, marketing and campaigns, and creative services and production.
- Close proximity to campus locations is also important to ensure accessibility for in-person meetings, timely collaboration, and on-site support as needed.
- Strategic communications and public relations:
•    Conduct in-person media training for 3-5 senior leaders (leverage college messaging to train as spokespeople, on-camera training, potential crisis response).
•    Develop crisis communications/issues management shelf plans (5 plans) aligned to institutional risks that the college has already identified. These risks will only be shared with the awarded vendor, after contract award.
•    Design public relations (PR) strategy and support for one major institutional event on college campus.
•    Provide ongoing strategic communications counsel on topics relevant to the college and higher education, including:
o    Proactive brand positioning strategies that reinforce the college’s reputation and standing in the region
o    Stakeholder engagement strategies that build credibility and deepen trust with students, parents, donors, faculty, community leaders, and employers
o    Real-time and proactive messaging support in response to emerging opportunities or risks
o    Ongoing identification of institutional, local, and higher education risks through media monitoring, trend analysis, and environmental scanning
•    Deliver rapid response strategic support for issues management, as needed
•    Participate in monthly planning sessions with the college’s communications and marketing team to align strategies, evaluate media coverage, and identify opportunities.
- Marketing and campaign development support
•    Evaluate existing market research, which will be made available to the awarded vendor, and conduct supplemental research to inform campaigns aligned to the new strategic plan (launching fall 2026).
o    Conduct, evaluate, and interpret all new data compiled through various research with a comprehensive review presentation of all materials.
o    Summarize key learnings and conclusions from new research and present findings to college leadership in person.
o    The college expects new research detail to be similar to the existing research touchpoints. The college’s existing research includes, but is not limited to, the following metrics across multiple audiences:
o    Measurement of awareness and perceptions of existing market position among various internal and external audiences
o    Identifying communication preferences and key decision factors for prospective students
o    Identifying factors considered when assessing a school’s reputation (cost/value of programs, diversity of programs, diversity of students, quality of faculty, etc.)
o    Identifying the college’s differentiators, descriptors, attributes perceived as distinctive to the college, institutional positions and promises most valued by central piedmont’s audiences
o    Preferred method of marketing communication
o    Marketing campaign messaging recall/effectiveness of current campaigns
o    Identifying what is associated with the college’s brand and how it differs across various audiences net promoter score
o    Audiences in market research included current faculty and staff, current students, prospective students, parents of prospective students, adult learners, community in general, employers, alumni.
o    Brand awareness campaign: develop concepts for one multimedia, integrated campaign to build brand awareness and highlight elements of the strategic plan. Include 4 rounds of revisions.
o    Focused campaign 1: develop concepts for one multimedia, integrated campaign tailored to a priority area (e.g., continuing education, dual enrollment, corporate training). Include 2-3 rounds of revisions.
- Creative services and production
•    Brand campaign –
o    Video production for brand awareness campaign suitable for broadcast, streaming, and digital platforms (a minimum of multi-day shoots across 3 campuses over 4 days).
o    Deliver creative assets for out-of-home, print, digital/social media, broadcast, and radio (may bleed into July/Aug. 2026).
•    General video support 
o    Produce at least 2 additional videos, likely leadership messaging supported by b-roll, in support of channels. One-day video shoot/production.
•    Copywriting –
o    Provide copywriting support for website content migration. Ensure all copy is clear, action-oriented, and written
o    In plain language, generally at an 8th grade reading level, to maximize usability and comprehension.
o    Expect to need about 20 hours of support per week for January through April.
- Develop concepts for refreshed creative assets for the broad brand awareness campaign (2 rounds of revisions).
- Focused campaign 2: develop concepts for a second focused multimedia, integrated campaign tailored to a priority audience or offering. Include at least 2-3 rounds of reviews/revisions.
- Conduct a brand study in spring/early summer 2027 to evaluate awareness and sentiment following initial campaign launch.

- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: November 21, 2025