12-Addendum 3 - RFP26-05 Tourism Marketing Services FINAL.pdf

ADDENDUM

Incorporated County of Los Alamos Procurement Division

101 Camino Entrada, Building 3 Los Alamos, NM 87544

This Addendum forms a part of the Solicitation documents and modifies the original Solicitation documents, as stated herein. All other provisions of the Solicitation documents remain unchanged. This Addendum is hereby made a part of the Solicitation documents to the same extent as those provisions contained in the original documents and all itemized listings thereof.

GENERAL INFORMATION

To: All holders of Solicitation documents for the below-referenced Solicitation.

Date: July 24, 2025

Addendum No.: No. 3

Solicitation No.: RFP26-05

Solicitation Title: Tourism Marketing Services

Contact Name: Derrill Rodgers

Contact Title: Deputy Chief Purchasing Officer

Contact Phone No.: 505.663.3507

Contact E-Mail: derrill.rodgers@losalamosnm.gov

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Respondents are requested to acknowledge receipt of this Addendum by submitting a signed copy of page one (1) of this Addendum with Respondent’s Bid or Proposal. Pursuant to NMSA 1978 §14-16-7, this acknowledgement may be signed by electronic signature.

I hereby acknowledge receipt of this Addendum.

Name: Date:

Title: Signature:

Company:

(This space intentionally left blank)

MODIFICATIONS TO THE SOLICITATION AND/OR Q&A

Please note the modifications to the Solicitation and/or questions received and County’s answers.

Ref.

No.

Modification and/or Question Answers

Can you clarify the level of support needed for in-person events? Will the successful agency be responsible for fully planning, staffing and running the event? Or will we be supporting the County with marketing materials and table support?

The Awarded Contractor will participate in outward facing events two (2) to four (4), annually as mentioned in 16.c (page 9) and 17.10 (page 11), Contractor will be required to be present in person for these to help with table support.

Contractor will also be coordinating with the County to determine who will be applying for these events (as many are through an online form). The physical marketing materials are often created and provided by the County for these events with guidance from the Contractor.

Other in person activities include Contractor presenting data/information regarding any tourism marketing that has occurred for Lodgers’ Tax Advisory Board meetings. There may be a time in the calendar year where Council calls on the Contractor to present in person at a public County Council meeting. The Lodgers’ Tax Advisory Board meetings are planned/scheduled public meetings and are organized by County Staff and conducted by Staff and Board members.

Do you already have a third-party data application/third-party mobile location intelligence provider in place? - per the RFP:

Demonstrate a year-over-year increase in tourism visitation and provide insight on the visitor journey and its demographics using a third-party data application.

The County has access to a third party application through the existing Tourism Marketing Services Contractor, the County is seeking access to the same type of information through this solicitation.

Do you already have a CRM in place: per the RFP: Increase qualified leads and newsletter subscribers by 15% annually, using CRM data to track user engagement, retention, and audience segmentation growth.

County currently utilizes a combination of Datafy along with Constant Contact email to serve as our “CRM” at this time, as well as another data pixel through ads run through the New Mexico Tourism Department to track leads via pixels on our website. If Offerors have a robust program available through their agency, Offerors are requested to describe the available option in their Response.

Are there any restrictions or guidelines regarding how funds should be spent (e.g., minimum media spend, limits on production costs)?

As mentioned in the first Pre-Proposal Conference, the only fixed spend requirement is the $15,000 for NMTrue. Offerors may propose allocation of the remainder of the budget within the defined components of the scope described in the RFP.

5 What is the preferred method and frequency of communication between the agency and

Preferred communication can vary based on the questions, etc. The County currently utilizes

Ref.

No.

Modification and/or Question Answers

Los Alamos Tourism during the contract period? Can you clarify which meeting will need in-person attendance?

email, phone, and text with the current Contractor. Frequency of communication varies based upon marketing initiatives, but averages at least once a week. Attendance in person is required for the events, two (2) to four (4) are anticipated annually. In addition, it can vary based on what marketing is being done each year. For example, County’s current contractor came to a photoshoot with NMTrue this last year.

The grant for 2025 doesn’t include a photoshoot, but there is a video shoot that County plans to have the contractor attend. Lodgers’ Tax Advisory Board meetings can be attended virtually, County reserves the right to request in person attendance.

Understanding realistic resources available is key in order for us to recommend priorities in our proposal response. If you’re unable to disclose a total budget amount, could you indicate which range the budget falls into? A) $20,000 - $99,000; B) $100,000 - $250,000;

C) $250,000 - $500,000; D) $500,000+

See the response provided in Addendum 1 regarding the budget for these Services.

Would you be open to a strategic workshop to kick things off together? Have you engaged in previous marketing/branding strategy workshops in the last 2 years?

The County’s Marketing Specialist often attends more than one workshop a year related to marketing and communications. County would be open to a workshop, meetings together will be needed to accomplish 17.2, 17.3, and 17.4 as described in the RFP.

We’ve noticed the scope of work and requested deliverables are very strategy/planning-heavy upfront. What would be the desired outcome of some of these plans? What has motivated Los Alamos County to prioritize strategy at this moment?

The requirements are similar previous RFPs issued by the County for tourism marketing services. The intent of developing a strategy and planning activities allows the County and Contractor to determine direction and build a foundation for tourism marketing activities with the goal of continuing to increase visitation numbers.

We see in your marketing plan that many of the FY2024 goals are metric-specific – driven around reaching certain metrics. Have you engaged in any campaigns in the past that measure the greater economic impact to Los Alamos County (with credit card data) and/or the traffic driven to the region (with anonymized cell phone data)?

County currently utilizes Datafy to track cell phone data visitation and have a pixel on our website that helps track if our efforts online are leading people to our location. County is not currently enrolled in a program that explores credit card data.

Are you interested in a marketing plan that is a bit more in depth than what you currently have? More about strategy for destination marketing, stewardship, audiences, etc. than just strategies, tactics and a schedule?

County will consider a more in depth plan, however responses must also integrate the components of the Scope of Services detailed in the RFP.

Modification and/or Question Answers

Why this RFP now? Are you looking to make a change, or is it mandated?

The term of the County’s existing Agreement is expiring in September 2025, so a new RFP has been issued to solicit for the services.

What are you looking to improve in your current social media strategy? Are you interested in other platforms? In your goal of growing audience by 10-20%, what type of content or content pillars do you want to show to develop audiences across all platforms?

County is willing to explore additional channels if this can be achieved within the current budget allocated. As mentioned, County wishes to focus more on engagement with content (ex.

Comments, likes, shares) instead of just views.

Could you please provide links to earned media coverage that best reflects how Los Alamos County envisions itself as a destination?

A recent example of earned media can be found at:

https://losalamos.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F

&ID=14505093&GUID=DCD77D12-8173-

4F0C-9894-28556504A212

Does Los Alamos currently host media FAM trips? If so, how many and with what kinds of media (family travel, general travel, etc.)?

County currently does not.

You call out the following goal in your list of desired goals: “Demonstrate a year-over-year increase in tourism visitation and provide insight on the visitor journey and its demographics using a third-party data application. Reports should be broken down by visitor origin, sector (e.g., retail, dining, lodging), and time of year.” Our team has worked with various different software platforms and partners in order to run campaigns and enable this level of reporting granularity. Can you clarify whether Los Alamos County currently invests in any platform(s), or has previously used any, that provide this type of reporting, and if so, which ones? (Adara, Azira, Epsilon, Placer.ai, Zartico, etc)

County’s current Tourism Marketing Services contractor utilizes Datafy. The County also currently has an account with Placer.ai. County is willing to consider other platforms proposed by Offerors.

There seems to be no booking engine integration on the website. Can you confirm how ROI has been calculated in the past, is it through the paid partnerships?

County utilizes a third-party data partner to determine with a pixel on our website who visited the website and then stayed at a local hotel.

Can you please confirm if the 50-page limit for this proposal includes the required documents and forms, or if those can be included in addition to the 50-pages?

The page limit does not include exhibits, attachments, or marketing materials as described in Section 18. Proposal Format and Response Components.

We saw that The New Mexico Tourism Department is awarding $109,000 to Los Alamos County through the Cooperative Marketing Grant Program for fiscal year 2026. Does this increase the 2026 FY budget to be more than the previously stated

This does not increase the budget, as County only utilizes $15,000 of the Tourism Marketing Services Contract (Lodgers’ Tax Funds) for this initiative each year. The rest of the funding is paid directly by Los Alamos County’s Economic Development Division budget.

Modification and/or Question Answers

$132,500, or was the grant funding from NMTD accounted for in the previously stated budget?