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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Lodging Tax Advisory Committee - 07/26/2016Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Agenda Mission: Promote the City as a destination to increase tourism and business development C:\Users\acorona\Desktop\7-26-16 LTAC Agenda.doc Unless otherwise noted, the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee meets every other Month on the 4rd Monday at 4:00 p.m. in Centennial North & South Conference Room, 400 West Gowe Street, Kent WA 98032. For information on the above item(s), contact Julie Pulliam (253) 856-5702. Committee Members: Bill Boyce, Chair, Tim Higgins, Josh Bang, John Casey, Barbara Smith, David Kwok, Andrew Hutchison, Andrea Keikkala, Bryan Powell City Staff: Ben Wolters, Julie Pulliam, Andrew Corona, Michelle Wilmot, Toni Azzola Special Guests: Dione Dittmar, Colin Campbell, Jason Thomsen, Cynthia Boyd SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA July 26, 2016 1:30 p.m. Centennial North & South Conference Rooms Item Description Action Speaker(s) 1. Welcome & Introductions No Bill Boyce 2. Dana Neuts/Kathryn Schmidt presentation No Dana Neuts 3. JayRay presentation No Joyce Glavish 4. Genesis presentation No Mary Kae Repp 5. Discuss/deliberate on contract award Yes Bill Boyce own natural wonders including the Green River, Lake Fenwick, Lake Meridian, Green River Natural Resources Area, and a robust system of parks and trails. Kent is also home to ShoWare Center, a 6,500 seat, 154,400 square-foot multi- purpose arena. Completed in 2009, ShoWare Center is home to the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League, Tacoma Stars of the Major Arena Soccer League and the Seattle Mist of the Legends Football League. The first LEED Gold multi-purpose sports and entertainment arena in the nation, ShoWare Center hosted 220 events, sold nearly 296,000 tickets and had 414,000 visitors in 2015. Last year ShoWare ranked 95th in the United States and 181st in the world for concert arenas, according to Pollstar. In addition to its lush landscape, robust sports and recreational activities, and thriving industry, Kent award-winning schools, and offers a wide variety of shopping, dining and cultural options for its residents and visitors. Highlights include Kent’s Historic District, Kent Station, the Kent Historical Museum, Pacific Raceways and a range of entertainment options as well as restaurants, coffee shops and pubs. Statement of Need The city is in need of tourism promotion and marketing services and wishes to contract with an experienced and qualified consultant to create and implement multi-media tourism marketing services that will result in increased business and number of tourists to the City of Kent. The city would like for these efforts to build upon the previously completed multi-step branding exercise (see ‘brand statement’ attachment), providing a consistent representation of Kent that balances the need for an increase in overnight hotel stays as well as enhancing local, regional and national awareness, shedding unfavorable stereotypes and shifting perceptions of a place among audiences consistent with the common vision for Kent’s future. Scope of Work Strategic assessment – Review the current strategy that is in place and make recommendations for adjustments or changes that need to be made, including but not limited to target audience, marketing channels, marketing opportunities, etc. Website – Refresh and manage the city’s tourism website – VisitKent.com – to promote local businesses and events to residents, visitors and businesses; develop content for the website; update and enhance the website with new event information; link the website to the City of Kent and other regional travel promotion sites; ensure the site and content utilizes good SEO practices; and website-related opportunities and functions. Social Media – Maintain existing social media sites to support tourism marketing efforts and recommend additional social media platforms that may be suitable. Update and enhance social media platforms regularly with new, relevant content and engage potential visitors and residents. Publications – Develop, design, deliver and distribute marketing collateral materials to build awareness of Kent’s positive attributes and attract visitors. Branding, Advertising and Media Relations – Create content; utilize print, online, radio and video to target travelers; submit regular news releases to local media regarding events; create and implement innovative promotional campaigns to drive visitors to visit local businesses; identify potential marketing needs of the city by analyzing available advertising media to determine suitable advertising media for the city; and other related branding and advertising activities. Market Research – Track website and social media analytics and report on them regularly; track advertising success rates via click throughs, website landing pages, etc; and submit regular reports on marketing efforts. Communication – Regularly communicate with the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee and other key stakeholders to advise of progress and opportunities, make recommendations, convey concerns and listen to ideas and suggestions offered by relevant individuals and entities. Budget – Create advertising and marketing budgets for city events and promotional activities; secure, manage and track sponsorships and paid advertising for events. Range for these activities, including special campaigns is $100,000-$150,000 annually. Miscellaneous – In addition to the above, analyze our existing efforts and make suggestions for marketing and content opportunities we have not yet explored and make recommendations on what could be done better or differently. Also, be prepared to provide strategic marketing support on special projects or initiatives as assigned by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, should time and budget permit. Form of Proposal Cover Letter – A cover letter must be submitted with the proposal. The cover letter should indicate the full name and address of the bidder that will perform the services described in this RFP. The bidder must indicate the name and contact information for the individual who will be the senior contact person for the responding bidder for this engagement. The cover letter must include identification of any and all sub-consultants of the bidder. A person authorized to bind the proposer to all commitments made in the proposal must sign the letter. Knowledge of the Kent Community – The bidder should furnish a narrative of how the bidder is familiar with Kent and the Puget Sound tourism economy. The narrative should identify past marketing and tourism related experience in the city and region. Experience and Qualifications – The bidder should clearly state its skills and experience in a manner that demonstrates its capability to complete the Scope of Work. If applicable, please highlight projects in which members of your proposed project team have worked together. Consultants should highlight their qualifications and experience (i.e., relevant case histories, including government and economic development organization experience with sufficient detail, information and/or access to online demos or examples). Consultants should demonstrate their knowledge of best practices in marketing and website design for tourism and economic development organizations. Consultants should detail their brand and web development process (i.e., explain the process they will follow, including major milestones and evaluation); address usability standards and testing; and address any important technology information and specifications used in the solution. Each proposer shall also furnish a list of up to five references/clients including names, addresses, phone numbers, and principal contacts in which the proposer has provided similar advertising and marketing services. Approach – The bidder shall set forth its overall technical approach and plans to meet the requirements of the RFP. This should convince the committee that the bidder understands the objectives that the engagement is intended to meet, the nature of the required work and the level of effort necessary to successfully complete the engagement. The responding bidder should also set forth a detailed work plan indicating how each task in the Scope of Work will be accomplished, including an outline of a proposed work and a timeline for key milestones and completion of the Scope of Work. Projected Costs/Budget – The bidder should provide a detailed matrix of estimated costs to provide the services, with the media buys being a part of the services provided. Such costs should be presented in a budget format that itemizes actual expenses for marketing, administration and creative services. Costs should not exceed budget range of $100,000 - $150,000 annually. Organization – The bidder should include an organizational chart including all key team members, their resume and the amount of time each member will spend on this engagement, based on a forty hour work week. If the responding bidder is a “joint venture”, there must be included a clear statement of responsibility associated with each member and/or entity of the joint venture. Evaluation Proposals will be evaluated by City staff, Lodging Tax Advisory Committee members and members of the City Council. The selection team will evaluate all proposals submitted, and select based the evaluation those to be interviewed. The selection team reserves the right to request additional information to clarify the content of the proposal. The selection team reserves the right to accept the proposal it considers most qualified and serves in the Kent’s best interest. Selection criteria may include, but may not be limited to the following:  Successful, demonstrated experience in developing and implementing tourism promotion and marketing/advertising plans.  Ability to effectively communicate with a cross section of Kent businesses, residents and stakeholders  Approach to completing the Scope of Work  Organization/communication skills Estimated Timeline Deadline for Proposals: May 27, 2016 Selection: July 13, 2016 Contract Start Date: September 1, 2016 Questions Questions regarding the Scope of Work may be directed to Andrew Corona, Economic Development Analyst, at acorona@kentwa.gov or (253) 856-6405 RFP Sample Questions: General  Please describe your strategic planning process. What goes into the development of a plan? What type of research do you do? Etc  Where do strategic partnerships or alliances fit into your overall approach? How have you used (or plan on using) strategic partnerships to extend a client’s budget and exposure?  Provide an overview of how you determine success. What are the analytic tools and/or services that you use, and what type of information will you be reporting back to the LTAC as it relates to meeting our objectives. Please define how your analytics can be converted into insights, and how the insights will help guide us in making decisions on how we market in the future. Website & Social Media  What improvements do you feel could be made to the current web and social media strategy to better engage users rather than just collecting stats?  What can be done to improve the organic reach of social media posts?  How will comments/inquiries through the website or social media be handled? Will someone be monitoring and responding to questions users may have about places or events, or be able to direct them to an accurate source of information?  What criteria will you use to plan content? How will you determine what is included or not included in promoting Kent?  What days/times do you find are best for social media posts?  What frequency do you recommend for blog and social media posts?  What is your strategy for paid ads? How do you determine if your ads are effective?  How do you stay current and responsive to quickly changing social media or marketing trends (Pokemon Go for example)?  How far in advance do you plan your content?  Where will you source images from?  How do you utilize tagging, hashtags, and other filters?  What types of images would help you tell the story of Kent? Print Publications  What types of print publications would you recommend for Kent, and where would you place them?  How would those placements, such as brochures and shelf cards, be maintained and restocked? Branding, Advertising and Media Relations  How do you ensure consistency with the visual look and copy writing style of the brand? Style guides, image filters, etc.  How frequently do you recommend doing a brand refresh?  What brand updates do you recommend making priority?  If you send out press releases, how do you track and report media response?  Do you have established media relationships in the area of tourism/travel?  Do you have any experience in multi-language/cultural marketing? Research  How will stay aware of events happening in Kent?  How will you find out about new restaurants or businesses opening?  How will you find out about parks, recreation activities, and things to do that might be considered hidden gems? 25 points – Qualifications/Experience. Has the agency demonstrated an ability to handle the needs in the RFP? Has the agency demonstrated a plan/ability to increase “heads-in-beds” and support our branding efforts outlined in the Statement of Need? 25 points – Marketing Strategy How well did the agency respond to the all the needs outlined in the Scope of Work? How well does the methodology ensure a consistent quality of work? Has the agency demonstrated effective success measures? How creative was the agency? 20 points – Knowledge of Kent How well did the agency demonstrate a knowledge of Kent and the local tourism industry? How well does the agency understand the different markets the LTAC would like to target? Is the agency local? 15 points – Budget/Value How reasonable was the cost as compared to other proposals & existing efforts? 10 points – Organization/Team/References. Agency facts and history Depth of team members with experience in tourism industry-related accounts. Qualifications of agency/team staff 5 points – Presentation How was the presentation from the agency?