Questions regarding RFP 123A9421R0006_Updates_04232021.pdf

Questions and Answers regarding RFP 123A9421R0006 – Media Support Services

Q1. In providing Media Pitching Support Services, would you prefer onsite representation to facilitate media requests? (For example, is pitching only required or would you need a representative present at the time the media arrives for a tour.)

A1. FSIS expects the media tours to be conducted virtually during the pandemic. After the pandemic and it is safe to be around others, the media tours may be in USDA offices, the contractor’s offices/studio, or at a local (Washington, DC) media outlet. FSIS expects the contractor will have staff available to assist the USDA spokespersons with any technical difficulties in connecting with the media outlet virtually.

Should the media tours be at the contractor’s offices/studio, FSIS expects contractor support. No contractor support would be necessary at the local media outlet.

Q2. How regularly do you anticipate travel for meetings and events?

A2. Because of the pandemic, the meetings will be virtual for now. However, that most likely will change once FSIS emerge from the pandemic and it is safe to meet in person. For guidance on how frequently that may be, please look at the entire Statement of Work and propose how you will accomplish the task. For example, it will be more effective to conduct media training in person, filming the training, and playing back the recording for the individual to give constructive feedback on how they look and sound on camera and whether they come across as credible expert. Please look at each task in the statement of work to determine what will be most effective to accomplish the task.

Q3. What would be the length of time for expected deliverables - from the onset of contact through to completion (i.e. 3-5 days)?

A3. Deliverable due dates will be determined for each deliverable and will be discussed during the planning stages for each task. The length of time will vary based on the task.

Q4. Is there an incumbent contract # for the Media Pitching Support Services? If not, is it anticipated that this project will have a ceiling value over $250k?

A4. Contract #AG-3A94-D-16-0082/ GS-07F-0672W with Home Front Communications, LLC. Yes, it is anticipated to have a ceiling value over $250K.

Q5. Are the referenced "major media tours" expected to be completed with the spokespersons traveling to in-person meetings/event or completed virtually?

A5. See answer to question One.

Q6. For Section 4.1.2., does the agency have any preference for specific regional or local areas?

A6. No, it will be determined on a case-by-case basis. FSIS would also expect the offeror to propose ideas for regional or local areas for media.

Q7. How many days in length should each of these media tours be?

A7. Generally, the media tours have taken place in 1 day or over the course of 2 days. There may be some interviews outside of that timeframe.

Q8. Will the spokespersons need in-person support from our company on these tours?

A8. See answer to question One.

Q9. Are the referenced "minor media tours" expected to be completed with the spokespersons traveling to in-person meetings/event or completed virtually?

A9. See answer to question One.

Q10. Does the agency have any preference for specific regional or local areas?

A10. See answer to question Six.

Q11. How many days in length should each of these media tours be?

A11. Generally, the media tours have taken place in 1 day or over the course of 2 days. There may be some interviews outside of that timeframe.

Q12. Will the spokespersons need in-person support from our company on these tours?

A12. See answer to question One.

Q13. What was the prior contract award amount?

A13. Approximately $150K per year

Q14. For the 3 past performances – Can one be non-federal experience? What is the time-frame for those examples? Do you want dollar amount? Do you want references with phone/emails?

A14. The offeror must provide information on three similar projects and those projects may be federal or non-federal experience. You may use any examples you choose, but more recent examples will be preferred. Please provide enough information to demonstrate you have completed similar projects.

Contact information, including phone numbers and emails, should be provided.

Q15. For the Spokesperson training:

As15a-d:

a. Will you seek the training to be taught in Spanish and English? The media training will be primarily in English; however, some training will need to be conducted in Spanish, if requested.

b. Can vendor provide training in a virtual setting via Zoom or other virtual platforms? Or do you prefer in-person? See answer to question One. Once the pandemic is over, it will be more effective to conduct media training in person, filming the training, and playing back the recording for the individual to give constructive feedback on how they look and sound on camera and whether they come across as a credible expert.

c. In the SOW it states the training would be done quarterly for 10-15 employees. Will this be done in one session for entire group of 10-15? Or are you expectsing it to be done over multiple days in smaller size groups? Or one-on-ones? FSIS expects the trainings to be in smaller groups.

d. Are the 10-15 people different each quarter? Yes, the people are different every quarter unless an individual needs refresher training.

Q16. Is there an incumbent agency for this solicitation?

A16. See answer to question four.

Q17. A “media tour” in 2021 doesn’t necessarily have the same meaning as it did a few years ago or even pre-COVID 19. Do you define “media tour” as actual travel by subject matter experts to interview locations across the country, a series of "satellite interviews” conducted from one location, or will you consider other strategies that meet the same objectives?

A17. During the pandemic, the media tours have been done virtually via Zoom, Skype, Teams, etc. After the pandemic, FSIS would anticipate them being done from a production studio, at the actual local (Washington, DC area) media outlet, and/or at USDA offices. FSIS also encourages the offeror to propose other strategies to accomplish the objectives.

Q18. Video production costs can vary wildly without knowing how many production days or where in the country the shoots will occur. Will extensive travel be required to capture b-roll footage? If so, how many production days do you anticipate and where?

A18. It is important to review the Statement of Work and the objectives outlined in the statement of work of “providing information and education materials designed to foster safe food handling and positive behavior change that can reduce foodborne illness.” FSIS recommend the offeror think about how media stories are put together and how b-roll footage would show consumers how to safely handle and cook food. The offeror will need to determine whether shooting such footage would require them to travel extensively or if it can be produced locally. FSIS recommend conducting Internet searches of broadcast media stories on food safety around food holidays to see current b-roll footage so the offeror can propose updates and ideas for new footage.

Q19. Has a budget or budget limit been established?

A19. Estimated budget is $750,000 for 5 years. Please provide a proposal for the services offered and associated costs. The government is looking for the best value.

Q20. Can USDA FSIS provide any examples of past performance?

A20. Each offeror shall submit a proposal illustrating how work of similar size, scope, and complexity was completed. Example: if the Government is seeking a contractor with development of an IT System and you have experience developing an IT System for an enterprise with the Department of Homeland Security and with Amazon, then that is work similar in size and scope.

Q.21 What is the percentage breakdown in terms of focus on media tours, video production, media training, and materials/message development? This will be helpful for both the technical and business proposal.

A21. The breakdown will be determined at the task order level.

Q22. Who are the primary spokespeople for FSIS? Will the Administrator be used at any time?

A22. There will be several spokespeople, including the Administrator, Deputy Administrator, other FSIS staff, USDA’s Under Secretary for Food Safety, USDA’s Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety and other subject matter experts. The individuals participating in the media tours will depend on the media outlet, schedules/availability and whether the interviews are in English or Spanish.

Q23. Are you also looking for ongoing support or will the contractor focus solely on the key events, observances you listed in the RFP?

A23. The contractor will focus on the tasks outlined in the statement of work.

Q24. Who is your primary audience? FSIS assumed the general public, but can you further define the demographic.

A24. In simple terms, the primary audience is everyone who eats and/or prepares meals, especially those meals focused on meat, poultry or egg products.

Q25. The SOW states that the contractor will provide public relations services to include the development of media messages and strategies, prepare media materials including but not limited to background materials, press releases, related video production, pitch materials, media alerts, and press kits. Are these specific to supporting the media tour, or to support FSES outreach efforts overall?

A25. The materials will be in support of the media tours but may be repurposed for use in support of other FSIS outreach efforts.

Q26. Do you envision the media tours being done from a production studio (satellite), or on-site at event locations?

A26. Since the pandemic, the media tours have been done virtually via Zoom, Skype, Teams, etc. After the pandemic, FSIS anticipates them being done from a production studio, at the actual local (Washington, DC area) media outlet, and/or at USDA offices.

Q27. Media training will be done quarterly and will include 10-15 employees – what role do these employees play? Are they SMEs, consumer safety officers? Administrative leadership? Do you envision them as public spokespeople? Or is this for professional development?

A27. The employees may be spokespersons who need a refresher, SMEs, and leadership. Some will be giving media interviews on food safety and others will be doing it for professional development to help them with speaking about an issue and answering questions within a public forum.

Q28. The SOW references FSES programs use various strategies to reach target audiences, including:

public service advertising under the Food Safe Families campaign; the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline;

Ask USDA’s virtual contact center, mobile applications; educational material targeted to the at-risk and underserved populations; social media campaigns; and outreach to the media. Are you looking for the contractor to review, revise, update, propose new concepts for any of these, or is this RFP strictly for media tours that will be leveraged to promote these resources?

A28. The RFP is limited to the tasks outlined in the statement of work. However, FSIS would encourage offerors to propose new concepts for consideration that could be effective for the media tours and repurposed for use in support of other FSIS outreach efforts.

Q29. How do you define “earned media value?”

A29. Earned media is the number of impressions that have resulted from the media tours that the contractor has pitched and placed as well as the placements that FSIS staff have obtained.

Q30. Is there a template for the business proposal that you can provide?

A30. A template will be provided.

Q31. Do you have results you could share from previous years doing this type of outreach around major events and observances?

A31. Each offeror needs to submit a proposal on how they plan to accomplish the statement of work and not be constrained by what has been done in the past.

Q32. Offeror is to complete blocks 12, 17a, 17b, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 of the 1449, as applicable, correct? In block 17a, what shall offeror enter for “code” and what for “facility code”?

A32. Leave code and facility code blank, if unknown.

Q33. FSIS don’t see a format to propose a billing schedule. As the contract unit is “year,” few contractors will be able to wait to bill after the first unit is delivered. Should contractors use their own format for a payment schedule or will the government supply one?

A33. Invoices will be submitted after government acceptance of deliverables via the Invoice Processing Platform www.ipp.gov.

Q34. Section C.17 should be removed from the RFP as Executive Order 13950 has been rescinded, correct?

A34. Yes, Executive Order 139950 was revoked on January 20, 2021, and the clause will be removed from contract award.

Q35. Section E.3 states this is an IDIQ contract. Section B.4 states this is a fixed price contract. Which is true? For a fixed price, contractors can supply you with a cumulated price for all the deliverables in section 4, based on your quantity estimates, if you are committed to buying all of those services. If you intend to issue orders for those services on an IDIQ basis, please so advise.

A35. The contract referencing fixed price is an oversight. Task orders issued will be firm fixed price against proposals award into the IDIQ contract.

Q36. Volume II requires “a complete price build up for the Period of Performance.” Of what should this buildup consist? Price by task in section 4? Labor hours and rates with ODCs?

A36. The business proposal will be based against the tasks outline in the template. The government is looking for the best value.

Q37. Section E.6 states this is a best value procurement. Section E.7 says that offerors will be ranked as technically acceptable, technically not acceptable, and susceptible to being made acceptable. Please clarify how these designations will be used in evaluation.

As 37a-d:

a. Will all offerors that are technically not acceptable be removed from consideration? Yes

b. Will offerors that are “susceptible to be made acceptable” be given an opportunity to revise their proposals? Yes, if necessary

c. Will those offerors then be permitted to revise their pricing? Yes, if necessary

d. How will pricing be factored into the evaluation? The evaluation factors in order of importance are technical approach, past performance and price. Prices proposed should be reasonable and the best value to the Government.

Q38. Understood that there are 10–15 spokespeople who would potentially be pulled into these tours.

How many spokespeople does USDA estimate staffing for each individual tour (as this affects pricing)?

A38. See answer to question One.

Q39. Understood there is a requirement of 40 interviews for each “major tour” with an audience of 12 million. There are several tactics that can be deployed (audio or video news release distribution, etc.) that can be added on to reach desired metrics. Are 40 interviews still required if other tactics help to reach above 12 million impressions?

A39. Yes. The statement of work clearly outlines the number of interviews and associated impressions.

Note that an interview with a network feeder would be counted as one interview; However, the number of impressions associated with that network feeder interview would be substantially more than an interview with one media outlet. Exceeding the number of interviews and impressions would be positive because it means safe food handling information is reaching more consumers.

Q40. Section E.7 states, for Past Performance, “the contractor shall submit information on three similar projects.” If the Offeror intends to include a subcontractor, will the subcontractor’s past performance be acceptable as one of the three, or do all three past performances have to come from the Offeror/prime contractor?

A40. No, past performance documentation should be for the prime.

Q41. Task 4.1.5 states that there will be at least 40 scheduled interviews for each tour. Can you please describe how that number of interviews was determined?

A41. Under the current contract, the number is 36 interviews and 10 million impressions. FSIS believes it is reasonable to slightly increase the number of interviews and associated impressions in this statement of work to reach more consumers with food safety information.

Q42. For clarification purposes, can you please confirm that the contractor will be doing all the associated PR (drafting media materials, curating media lists, writing and distributing pitches, hosting interviews via an online platform, etc.) described and not simply supporting an internal USDA team that is doing the “heavy-lifting”?

A42. The contractor will be responsible for pitching media outlets, which would include developing pitch language or media alerts based on information given to the contractor from the agency. FSIS will review and approve the pitch language and/or media alert. FSIS expects the contractor to have media contacts to whom they will pitch. FSIS expects the media tours to be conducted virtually during the pandemic. After the pandemic and it is safe to be around others, the media tours may be in USDA offices, the contractor’s offices/studio, or at a local (Washington, DC) media outlet. FSIS expects the contractor will have staff available to assist the USDA spokespersons with any technical difficulties in connecting with the media outlet virtually. Should the media tours be at the contractor’s offices/studio, FSIS would expects contractor support. No contractor support would be necessary at the local media outlet.

Q43. If this is a continuation of an existing project, can you please share any metrics about what worked

vs. areas you would like to focus on improving or expanding?

A43. Each offeror needs to submit a proposal on how they plan to accomplish the statement of work and not be constrained by what has been done in the past.

Q44. Should the contractor place their past performance examples within the technical volume or business proposal volume?

A44. Please include in the Business Proposal

Q45. Should reps and certs be placed within the business proposal volume or as a separate document?

A45. Please include in the Business Proposal

Q46. The instructions call for only the written technical approach for the statement of work; however, page 39, section E.7, Evaluation Factors, states that the contractor shall submit information on three similar projects. Should this information be provided in an appendix, or is it to be included in the 10 pages of the technical proposal?

A46. Please include in the Business Proposal

Q47. Do you have a sense of how many or how often b-roll video production services are required?

A47. It’s important to review the Statement of Work and the objectives outlined in the statement of work of “providing information and education materials designed to foster safe food handling and positive behavior change that can reduce foodborne illness.” FSIS recommend the offeror think about how media stories are put together and how b-roll footage would show consumers how to safely handle and cook food. FSIS recommend conducting Internet searches of broadcast media stories on food safety around food holidays to see current b-roll footage so the offeror can propose updates and ideas for new footage.

Q48. Have you ever used and/or participated in Radio or Satellite Media Tours as part of your outreach efforts?

A48. Yes.

Q49. Is the language in E.8 REPRESENTATION BY CORPORATIONS REGARDING AN UNPAID

DELINQUENT TAX LIABILITY OR A FELONY CONVICTION (DEVIATION 2012-01) (AGAR

452.209-70) (FEB 2012) to be included in the Price Proposal?

A49. Please include in the Business Proposal.

Q50. At what locations would b-roll footage be gathered? Is there an allowance for travel outside of the Washington, DC area?

A50. See answer to question 47

Q51. At what locations would media training be delivered, or would it be virtual? Is there an allowance for travel outside of the Washington, DC area?

A51. See answer to question One. There will be a CLIN for travel and will be in accordance with the federal travel regulation.

Q52. Will the agency notify the contractor regarding these interviews (i.e. let us know when they are scheduled and the outlet)?

A52. According to the SOW, “If additional media tours or services are required a contract modification will be negotiated.” As a result, FSIS are not able to answer your question because FSIS do not know whether these additional media tours or services will be needed. If they are needed, as the SOW indicates, a contract modification will be negotiated and discussions will occur on the additional services.

Q53. Will a list of desired media to be contacted be provided by the Government?

A53. FSIS would expects the contractor selected to have media contacts and be able to make recommendations on which media outlets to pitch.

Q54. Is the contractor required to provide employees to travel in support of onsite media tours i.e., the Superbowl?

A54. See answer to question One. FSIS expects the contractor will have staff available to assist the

USDA spokespersons with any technical difficulties in connecting with the media outlet virtually.

Should the media tours be at the contractor’s offices/studio, FSIS would expects contractor support.

No contractor support would be necessary at the local media outlet.

Q55. Will media training be conducted on or off-site?

A55. During the pandemic, FSIS expects trainings to be virtual. However, once the pandemic is over, it will be more effective to conduct media training in person, filming the training, and playing back the recording for the individual to give constructive feedback on how they look and sound on camera and whether they come across as credible expert.

Q56. Is there an expectsation by the Government of the length of the media training?

A56. Each offeror needs to propose how they plan to conduct effective media training.

Q57. Is the media training to be focused on preparation of Government officials for media appearances or training to prepare written and video products to support the media tours?

A57. The media training should focus on preparing government officials to speak on-camera and off camera to media outlets.

Q58. Will the Government require 3rd party audience assessments for reach of media engagement?

A58. Each offeror needs to propose how it plans to report accurately the reach of media engagement.

Q59. If travel to the Government’s site for meetings and presentations is expectsed, will there be a CLIN for travel expenses?

A59. See answer to question 51.

Q60. 4.1.2 states that media tours will include a combination of national, regional and local media outlets. Please provide the optimum breakout for each on a percentage basis? How would the Government define success?

A60. FSIS expects the offeror to have contacts for national, regional or local media outlets and propose a mix of media outlets to meet the required number of interviews and audience reach. FSIS defines success as outlined in the statement of work, which indicates the number of interviews and audience reach for major and minor media tours.

Q61. 4.1.3 states outlets will include print, digital, radio and television media outlets. How would the Government define success per percentage of engagements?

A61. FSIS defines success as outlined in the statement of work, which indicates the number of interviews and audience reach for major and minor media tours.

Q62. 4.1.4 discusses Spanish and English audience targeting. Please provide an estimation of the breakdown of percentage of interviews in each market?

A62. The offeror should propose a mix of English and Spanish media outlets to reach the required number of interviews and audience reach.

Q63. The contractor is required to have at least 40 scheduled interviews during a media tour. What is the length of a typical media tour and how many spokespeople will be participating?

A63. Generally, the media tours have taken place in 1 day or over the course of 2 days. There may be some interviews outside of that timeframe. FSIS will have numerous spokespeople available to participate in the scheduled interviews.

Q64. If there are multiple media interviews being conducted in a single day or FSISek, is the expectsation that the Government employee will be coached prior to the interview? If the interview is onsite is there an expectation that a contractor will accompany the Government employee on the interview?

A64. Some of the spokespeople might need a short refresher/coaching session prior to the media tours;

others will not. FSIS expects the media tours to be conducted virtually during the pandemic. After the pandemic and it is safe to be around others, the media tours may be in USDA offices, the contractor’s offices/studio, or at a local (Washington, DC) media outlet. FSIS expects the contractor will have staff available to assist the USDA spokespersons with any technical difficulties in connecting with the media outlet virtually. Should the media tours be at the contractor’s offices/studio, FSIS would expect contractor support. No contractor support would be necessary at the local media outlet.