Questions_and_Answers_to_Combined_Synopsis_Solicitaiton.docx

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TO COMBINED SYNOPSIS SOLICITATION NO. 140F0918Q0051

The following questions highlighted in blue font were received form interested vendors. The applicable responses are highlighted in black font

1. Is the ten page limit for single-sided pages only, or are double-sided pages allowable?

Double sided pages are allowable

2. The instructions note to submit the proposal on a SF-1449 form. Is this indeed a requirement and if so, where would we locate this form?

The SF form 1449 can be found on www.fbo.gov Sol 140F0918Q0051

3. For the delivery date requirement, would it suffice to provide a rough timeline for the work to be performed? Yes

4. From Section B under Submission Requirements, what specifically does Section III-IV refer to? We weren’t able to locate that exact reference within the documents.

Section B…should be the Statement of Work

5. Are there any specific forms etc. within the Combined Synopsis document that we should be sure to include in our response?

Yes, the SF 1449 and if you have other backup documentation please include, you also provide you pricing on a separate sheet

6. Do you have an existing style guide we would need to follow for this work?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System has print publication design standards (link in Statement of Work) developed in 2003. These standards are for print media, it is an expectation that as part of Discovery the vendor would review these and make recommendations to evolve and update based on the overall rebranding effort.

7. How will the future logo & branding applications differ from existing applications?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service logo is not being overhauled (right), but the sub brand of the “Blue Goose” (left) which is the logo of the National Wildlife Refuge System can be considered for redesign. With the understanding that the blue goose is on many entrance signs and boundary signs, so it’s important to maintain some continuity.

8. Will the name “National Wildlife Refuge System” stay the same as part of the branding?

That is the official name of the organization, we are open to explore how to represent it or derivations throughout our branding.

9. Do you have any specific goals or KPIs for measuring awareness and engagement?

No, we hope as part of this process a vendor can help narrow to the right audiences and recommend goals.

10. Who is responsible for any production expenses as part of this budget (printing for style guide, etc.)?

The vendor would be responsible for printing any prototype and draft materials, for larger print or production runs the Service would be responsible.

11. What are some major successes you’ve had as an organization?

The National Wildlife Refuge System is a very small government agency in terms of workforce (~3,000 employees), but we have an outsized impact on conservation across the country. Because we are small we leverage extensive partnerships with cities, nonprofits, and private industry. Often our successes

Our most recent success was a multi-year visioning and strategic planning process called Conserving the Future: Wildlife and the Next Generation. This internal effort rallied our partners and employees around what we need to change about how we do business to ensure that we meet the ever-growing conservation challenges amid vast disruptions in technology and demographics. This document and the implementation plans that were rolled out as a result have help up move toward some much needed paradigm shifts across the organization. The National Wildlife Refuge System Communication Strategy was one product of this effort.

12. What other programs have you initiated that involve partnering with other organizations (Boy Scouts, 4-H, etc.)?

We have an extensive list of partnerships, individual wildlife refuges are typically very rooted in their local communities, and informal and formal partnerships could range from the local chamber of commerce to local Boy Scout troops and beyond. Refuges also have a network of over 180 official Friends groups serving over 200 refuges. This locally-based group are loosely affiliated with the National Wildlife Refuge Association. From a national perspective our biggest partnerships are with youth development organizations like the Student Conservation Association.

13. What are your current channels for outreach (PSA, content creation, other marketing, etc.)?

We are restricted from paid channels, but do our best to deliver content through earned media channels. We have a few full-time writers, but no graphic design capabilities. Our field staff through disparate social media channels often produces surprising and engaging content, but it is not currently well coordinated or focused.

14. The Submission Requirements specifies that our Proposed Scope of Work address the required elements under Section III-IV of the NWRS Communications Campaign document. We noticed that Section IV was missing from that document, we assumed due to a numbering typo, but wanted to make certain there was not a section of information we were missing and should be responding to.

Section B…should be the Statement of Work

15. "The plan should outline attainable marketing goals and recommend how to monitor results.” How will The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service measure the success of this campaign? With what specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound metrics?

We hope to come to those SMART metrics in collaboration with the vendor through this process.

16. "The vendor will submit a media buying plan not to exceed…” We noticed what we thought were some missing words here. There is no amount for the “not to exceed” reference. What budget should the media plan not exceed?

$1Million

“...nature and wildlife enthusiasts…” // “…influencers and innovators in the conservation community…"

17. Are you able to share basic demographic information from your research indicating age, household income, or other characteristics of the target audience, as that will determine much of our targeting approach.

Currently our research has focused more broadly on different market segments. We are working on tapping into the recommendations of a large study that looked at how Americans across multiple demographic segments value nature. -https://natureofamericans.org/

“...large national campaign deployed in up to 8 regional markets…” // "The plan should include a variety of channels...to specific media markets.”

18. Are you able to identify which key media markets are considered most important and how would spend be allocated or weighted?

We would be relying on the vendor to help us focus our efforts.

19. Is it possible for us to know some basic budget parameters or a range for the overall project?

$250K-$500K

26. What counts as engagement in conservation? Social awareness? Followers? Shares or more physical visits to refuges? Volunteer apps? Dollars raised?

We are really looking for something beyond social awareness. Increase in volunteer applications, increase in membership to local Friends groups, and dollars raised. In some cases, like urban wildlife refuges we hope to see more physical visits.

20. Regarding the audience targets, they are described a few different ways. Are the targets the conservation influencers and innovators (the 2.5% of the US population) who are already in the conservation community but aren’t visiting refuges? Or the wider cross section of the public? Or nature and wildlife enthusiasts in general? While targeting the influencers will have a downstream impact on the community of general nature enthusiasts, just wanted to see which is the point of focus for this effort.

In addition to our usual innovators - longtime boomer volunteer, and intrepid millennial field biologist, passionate waterfowl hunters-. We would like this rebrand to activate those innovators that have yet to be tapped into, who probably are embedded somewhere in the larger “nature/wildlife enthusiast sector” versus already engaging with us. For example, urban parents that know connecting their children to wildlife and nature will help them academically and emotionally.

One of the goals of the National Wildlife Refuge is to be established as the ‘Home of the Nature Connection Movement.’ Who is the biggest competitor/alternative that may also be trying to be the leader in the Nature Connection Movement?

Other competitors in this sector are probably our fellow land management agencies (National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, state parks, state wildilfe areas), but our point of difference really centers around being nearby places where the American public has the opportunity to reconnect everyday versus on an annual family vacation.

We are also the public lands that have more opportunities for close encounters with wild nature, and have the opportunity for access to. Our extensive partnerships help us also bring in other places like schools, city parks, and green spaces.

We have worked on large campaigns promoting a connection with nature, for example, Discover the Forest with the Ad Council and Find Your Park. Is this project similar -

It sounds at this stage we are :

· establishing a strategic plan

· updating the brand/style guide deck

· creating some sample assets and templates (see additional questions below) and developing a media plan but we are not implementing on the plan (beyond creating the sample assets), correct?

Yes

· establishing a strategic plan

· updating the brand/style guide deck

· creating some sample assets and templates (see additional questions below)

· and developing a media plan but we are not implementing on the plan (beyond creating the sample assets), correct?

21. Is there a way to define this scope a bit more? What are the expectations of the volume of communication products and marketing products to be created during the time of this project (e.g. number of assets -- brochures, social graphic templates, site page mockups, in office displays/placards, signage, business cards, digital banners, etc.). We anticipate that even if there is a master look established there might need to be a few templates of each collateral format themed to the diverse terrain and offerings at the refuges. Or is it really to update the existing guide book and all of those assets would need to be refreshed as part of the scope of this project?

This is the approximate suite of create suite assets we are looking for, but we are also looking to the expertise of the vendor to recommend items we have overlooked or help us focus.

· 30-60-90 Anthem Video concept (it is negotiable depending on budgets whether video would go to production)

· Suite of a few discreet nationally available products (3-4) that would be determined by the vendor (Site Pages Mockups for overall national campaign launch, banner design, trade show display concepts).

· Each field station aligns more closely with one of four brand themes- nearby nature, wildlife recreation, personal benefits (social solo), or iconic wildlife. For example, 100 urban wildlife refuge offer experience for safe and nearby nature; whereas, our more rural refuges might align more closely with providing high quality social wildlife recreation experiences like hunting or birding. For each of these brand corners we would want a discreet marketing products package (3-4 items/templates) that the vendor designs for deployment at field stations. The government would produce/fabricate these items through other means.

22. “Track measure and evaluate the success of these efforts” - are we actually then producing and market testing the assets? If this is just to create the strategy we can outline the key performance indicators and metrics to track to measure the effectiveness, but we wouldn’t actually measure and evaluate until the point of implementation that is beyond this scope outlined.

That is correct.

23. The type of media required for this campaign will be recommended by the selected vendor (and perhaps driven by media partnerships) and no specific media is a requirement at this time, correct? We ask since the range of media investment mentioned is very broad - $100K to $1M.

No specific media buying is required as part of the solicitation, just a plan about what we could do with a sliding budget of $100K- $1M. But we would want assets developed to launch on current free channels see answer to question 21.

24. In line item #6 in the RFP, it states “media buying plan not to exceed…” but it seems like some wording is missing.

$100K to $1M.

25. Do you have a budget range for this strategic planning phase?

$250K-$500K

26. Do you have a budget range for the next phase after this strategic development phase for the full implementation of this campaign?

No, we hope to leverage this process to recruit partners for implementation.

27. How many agencies will be participating in the RFP process?

No agencies will participating, just contractors will participating in the RFP process.

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