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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/21/1999, C2 - REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR CITY ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS STUDY CONSULTANT council j ac En as Report It.N.C2 C I T Y OF S AN L U IS O B 1 S P 0 FROM: Ken Hampian, Assistant City Administrative Officer Prepared By: Wendy George,Assistant to the City Administrative Officer 111 SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR CITY ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS STUDY CONSULTANT CAO RECOMMENDATION 1. Approve the Request for Proposals (RFP) prepared by the Promotional Coordinating Committee (PCC) for a tourism advertising conversion study and authorize soliciting of proposals. 2. Authorize contract award by the CAO if selected proposal is within the available budget of $15,000. DISCUSSION The PCC currently advises the Council on the City's tourism promotion program, including making recommendations for the expenditure of about $383,000 for advertising and other promotional activities. As part of the 1999-01 Financial Plan, the Council approved the PCC's request for $15,000 to fund an advertising conversion study. The PCC has recognized for a number of years that the City spends a significant amount of money on advertising, without any measurement of its results. The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of the City's advertising program in converting interested parties to actual visitors. The PCC has met with its promotional contractors, the Chamber of Commerce, the San Luis Obispo County Visitors and Conference Bureau and Barnett Cox & Associates, and with their help has developed an.RFP for the advertising conversion study. Major objectives of the work scope are as follows: • To allow the City to estimate accurately the number of people who visit as a result of its paid advertising and "fulfillment" program. ("Fulfillment" is the term used for materials sent back by the City in response to inquiries generated by advertising.) • For those individuals who have not visited the City after receiving "fulfillment" materials, to determine: (1)Do they plan to visit in the next twelve months? and(2) If not, why? • To determine the relative effectiveness of individual advertising campaigns by measuring their actual conversion to visitors. • To determine the relative conversion effectiveness of different "fulfillment" materials, e.g., the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce Visitors Guide, the Visitors and Conference Bureau Visitors Guide and the City tourism brochure. C2-1 Council Agenda Report-RFP for Advertising Effectiveness Study Page 2 • To determine the relative effectiveness of conversion based on different methods of responding to City advertisements, e.g.,telephone responses versus e-mail responses. In addition to these major objectives, the study will provide information on where visitors stayed, which cities in the County were visited, how many visitors were in each party, how long they stayed and how much money they spent during their visit. It should be noted that a conversion study is directed only toward those people who actually request information in response to the City's paid advertising. The City has a data bank of information from such contacts which can be used for the survey. However, there are other components to the City's promotional program besides advertising, such as press releases and working with outside newspaper and magazine writers. The Chamber of Commerce is currently conducting a survey of visitors which will help the PCC to make a broader assessment of the City's promotional program. The Chamber will also be performing some surveys out of the area to determine the level of knowledge about San Luis Obispo generated by its promotional program. The results of the advertising conversion study, coupled with the Chamber's surveys, should allow the City to adjust its promotional program in the future to increase its effectiveness at tourism attraction. The 2000-01 budget contains an additional $15,000 of promotional funding to be used to implement recommended changes to the promotional program resulting from the research being performed this year. CONCURRENCES The San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce,the San Luis Obispo County Visitors and Conference Bureau and Barnett Cox&Associates all concur with the work scope of the RFP. FISCAL UMPACT $15,000 for the study has been included in the 1999-01 Financial Plan(Page D-122). Attachment Description of Work from RFP Complete RFP is available in Council Reading File C2-2 Section A - ATTACHMENT 1 DESCRIPTION OF WORK r The City of San Luis Obispo is a city of about 43,000 located on the Central California Coast. Because of its proximity to the ocean,its historical mission and other natural assets, it benefits significantly from tourism. Income from the Transient Occupancy Tax, or bed tax, is the City's third largest source of revenue-and amounts to about$3.3.million dollars per year. Accordingly,the City spends approximately $383,000 per year on tourism promotion. Of that; approximately $200,000 is spent directly for paid advertising through an advertising agency, Barnett Cox & Associates, and the San Luis Obispo County Visitors and Conference Bureau. The City normally advertises during the months of October-April. A citizens advisory committee to the City Council, the Promotional Coordinating Committee (PCC), oversees the City's promotional program and makes recommendations to the City Council on expenditures and program changes. All City advertisements provide an 800 telephone number which interested parties can use to request information on visiting the City.. In some cases, an e=mail address is also provided. When phone calls are made by prospective visitors in response to an advertisement, a "fulfillment" package of information is sent to them. "Fulfillment"packages are sent out by both the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, under contract.to Barnett Cox & Associates, and by the Visitors and Conference Bureau, depending on the source of the advertisement. Additional "fulfillment" packages are sent out in response to "bingo" cards or labels from.certain magazine advertising. The Visitors and Conference Bureau has non-integrated data bases of phone numbers and names and addresses from the various types of advertising sources. Barnett Cox& Associates has an integrated data base of names, addresses organized by advertising source. The Visitors and Conference Bureau receives approximately 700 requests for materials per month. Barnett Cox & Associates generate approximately 1,045 requests per month. The City of San Luis Obispo would like to determine the impact of its tourism advertising and "fulfillment" expenditures by measuring their effectiveness in converting interested parties into actual visitors. The prospective proposer would be expected to provide a plan for, and implement a study which will accomplish the following primary objectives:. 1. Allow the City to estimate accurately the number of people who visit as a result of its advertising and "fulfillment" program. 2. For those individuals who have not visited the City after receiving "fulfillment" materials determine: (1)Do they plan to visit in the next twelve months?and(2)If not,why? 3. Determine the relative effectiveness of individual advertising campaigns by measuring their actual conversion to visitors. 4. Determine the relative conversion effectiveness of different"fulfillment"materials,e.g.,the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce Visitors Guide, the Visitors and Conference Bureau's Visitors Guide and the City's tourism brochure. 5. Determine the relative effectiveness of conversion based on different methods of responding to City advertisements, e.g.,telephone response,e-mail response and mailed requests. , In addition, the following secondaryinformation would be of great interest to the City: 1. Did the visitor stay in a hotel/motel, campground'or private home? 2. Which cities were visited in addition to San Luis Obispo? 3. How many visitors were in the party? 4. How many nights did the visitor stay? -1 C2-3 5. How much money did the visitor spend for lodging and-in total while in San Luis Obispo? At-a_minimum,the results of the study should be summarized in the following manner: 1. Separate:.results for advertising by Barnett Cox and Associates and by the San Luis Obispo County Visitors and Conference Bureau. 2. Separate totals by month of the year. The proposer will be expected both to provide the methodology for performing the advertising conversion study and to.perform the study itself. The budget currently availklile.for the Addy is$15,000. -2- C2-4