Town of Farragut

Addendum 1

RFQ No. 2026-09

Tourism, Marketing & Public Relation Services 05/20/2025

The proposer acknowledges this addendum shall modify and become a part of the original solicitation document. The Proposer further acknowledges that should it be determined at the time of the bid opening that the Proposer has failed to acknowledge receipt of ALL issued addenda; the Proposer’s Bid submission shall be rejected. The Proposer understands that any verbal representation made or assumed to be made during any oral discussion held between Proposer’s representatives and any Town personnel is not binding. Only the information issued in writing and added to the specifications by an official addendum is binding.

Q1. What is the expected outcome of this project? Is there a specific growth metric for local tourism that you are looking to meet?

A1. This project aims to develop a comprehensive media plan for the Town's tourism program, with a focus on attracting visitors from 50 miles away or more. The plan will include strategic content and customizable templates designed to support tourism staff in effectively executing and sustaining the campaign in the future.

Q2. Do you have an anticipated budget in mind?

A2. Between 24,000 and 29,000

Q3. Do you have an idea of how frequently you will hold stakeholder meetings?

A3. This is yet to be determined. This will be discussed during negotiations with the awarded proposer.

Q4. You mention digital advertising across TripAdvisor, Meta, Groundtruth. What other platforms are you considering or should we suggest some?

A4. We are looking for suggestions to diversify our current Marketing platforms and outlets.

Q5. Do you have an idea of the demographic of typical tourists coming to your area?

A5. We do not have any formalized data about our current visitor demographics.

Q6. Are there any current marketing or advertising efforts underway that we would be building upon or replacing?

A6. Yes, the Town currently engages in a variety of digital marketing efforts to promote tourism, which this project would complement and build upon. These include:

• Quarterly advertising campaigns on Meta platforms

• Ad placements on Tripadvisor

• Google Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

• Geofencing ads deployed around events

Q7. What channels have historically driven the best ROI or engagement for the Town’s tourism initiatives?

A7. Meta has historically delivered the strongest performance in terms of reach and website traffic, serving as our primary digital advertising platform. Campaigns on Meta have been particularly effective in meeting goals related to increasing awareness and driving sessions to the Visit Farragut website.

Recently, we’ve begun diversifying our approach by adding platforms such as Tripadvisor and GroundTruth to reach audiences during their travel planning and in-market decision-making stages.

Looking ahead, as our focus shifts toward converting interest into actual visits to Farragut, we are eager to explore a wider mix of digital media platforms and tactics to maximize ROI and engagement.

Q8. Is there a current or incumbent vendor providing these services? If so, will they be rebidding?

A8. There is no current vendor providing these specific services. This is a new contract opportunity, and there is no incumbent rebidding.

Q9. What CRM or email marketing tools (if any) are currently used for e-newsletters?

A9. The Town currently uses Constant Contact for monthly e-newsletter distribution.

We do not use a CRM platform at this time.

Q10. Is there a preference given to local vendors?

A10. No.

Please see attached transcript from the 05/14/2025 Pre-Bid meeting

All communications regarding this RFP must be submitted via email to the Finance Department representative identified below:

Anissa Pratte, Staff Accountant apratte@townoffarragut.org

The Staff Accountant will be the sole point of contact for this RFP.

mailto:apratte@townoffarragut.org

2026-09 Town of Farragut Tourism, Marketing & Public

Relations Services RFQ

Transcript

May 14, 2025, 2:57PM

Anissa Pratte 0:08

K.

Good morning, everybody.

Welcome to the request for qualification pre bid meeting.

I'm just going to go over some house cleanings. Things concerning this request for qualifications. The town of Farragut is requesting qualifications for tourism, marketing and public relations services.

The deadline to answer any questions is June 5th.

After that, we will not be answering any more questions.

The RFQ opening will be on June 10th at 2:30.

Please understand that we do not.

Control FedEx, UPS and all those other things.

Ron Oestreich 3:57

OK.

Anissa Pratte 4:00

So umm, if it comes in late, we will not be opening. We will not be considering it regardless of if it's their responsibility or not, or whose responsibility.

I am your sole contact for this.

Rfq.

My name is Anissa Pratt.

If you have any questions concerns, please e-mail me.

And with that being said.

I am gonna get the ball rolling so we can start with answering any questions you may have.

You can either put them in the chat or if you want to speak up and and ask them, please go right ahead.

Nicholas Boyett 4:39

Hi so I do have a couple of questions on this.

First question, do you guys have any like kind of crisis communication plan that our marketing team should align with?

Hallie Reid 4:51

At the moment, the tourism tube does not have a crisis communication plan on its own.

I'll have to see if the town has a separate one, but as of right now, no.

Nicholas Boyett 5:02

OK, if you don't already have one, would you be open to the vendor creating one?

Hallie Reid 5:07

I don't. That's what we're looking for with this project.

Nicholas Boyett 5:10

No problem.

Another question I guess what has been what have been some biggest challenges that you're looking to overcome?

Hallie Reid 5:19

Yeah. So right now one of our biggest issues is getting content.

We only have three team members and we have other duties as well, so making sure we have enough content to keep our feeds and our ads running is essential.

Nicholas Boyett 5:36

OK, awesome. And then Speaking of content, I know you said you're looking for more.

Would we have access to any like existing content that you guys have now?

Yes, OK, cool.

Hallie Reid 5:45

Yes, we could provide our our photo assets.

Nicholas Boyett 5:48

OK, awesome. And then concerning your e-mail marketing, what platform do you guys currently use and do you know how large your subscriber base is?

Hallie Reid 5:58

So currently we have we use constant contact.

I will have to check and see how many people we have subscribed to it currently.

Nicholas Boyett 6:06

OK, awesome. And then what KP is you guys use to evaluate your campaign success?

Hallie Reid 6:13

So for e-mail marketing specifically or in general?

Nicholas Boyett 6:17

Just in general.

Hallie Reid 6:18

So right now.

Our our main KPI is digital media reach.

So just how many people did we reach?

I think we'd like to expand on that in the future.

So if there's suggestions, we're open to hearing them.

Nicholas Boyett 6:31

Awesome. All right. Thank you so much.

Hallie Reid 6:33

Mm hmm.

Michael Oppenheimer 6:35

Is there a budget or budget range for this RFP?

Hallie Reid 6:39

Yes, let me put that up real quick.

The we'd like it to be between 24,000 and 29,000.

Anissa Pratte 7:02

Morning.

Alvin McClinton 7:02

The question I have is one just for clarification, this solicitation must be mailed or dropped off in person and not electronically.

Is that correct?

Anissa Pratte 7:15

That is correct.

We haven't come up with the times yet.

I still need everything on paper.

Alvin McClinton 7:20

OK. The other question I have is, do you have a manual for your font, print coloring or anything like that?

Or is that strictly up to the person that wins a company that wins the bid?

Hallie Reid 7:37

So we do have a brand kit.

We are still finalizing some of our fonts. We're making some updates to those, but we do have a brand kit for visit Farragut.

Alvin McClinton 7:46

So would that kit be available to us prior to or after?

Hallie Reid 7:54

Day after yes.

Alvin McClinton 7:56

After.

Thank you.

Anissa Pratte 8:08

Any other questions?

Anybody.

Nicholas Boyett 8:21

I have one more question, sorry.

Anissa Pratte 8:22

Yeah, go for it.

Nicholas Boyett 8:25

For like your print ads, would you guys prefer templates that like your staff can easily update or are you guys looking for a custom designed creatives?

Hallie Reid 8:35

Looking for a template. So we want something we'll be able to use over the next few years as a base for different campaigns.

Nicholas Boyett 8:42

Awesome. All right. Thanks so much.

Alvin McClinton 8:46

I got one more, I apologize.

Anissa Pratte 8:48

I don't go for it.

Alvin McClinton 8:50

One is for your website.

Does the do you keep your own website or is that something that we would just provide content and you put it and you put it on the website? Or are we doing that or with the respondent do that?

Hallie Reid 9:00

So through this project it wouldn't involve our website at all.

We're looking more for social media and different ad platforms.

Alvin McClinton 9:12

OK.

There was one that.

Could you go over what? What you the experience of the individuals that?

Is.

Kind of ambiguous to me right now, So what?

Like some RFPs will tell you that you need a bachelor or master's degree or whatever, so.

Anissa Pratte 9:51

So we have not put any of that kind of criteria in there. What we're looking for is the experience of your company.

We're looking for your references.

Alvin McClinton 9:58

Anissa Pratte 10:00

We're looking for credentials.

The experience of your staff, we're looking for availability and and you know your commitment to this project.

Like, what does that look like? And the approach and delivery of the services?

So we don't get specifics into you got to have a master's degree in those kinds of things that we don't do.

Alvin McClinton 10:19

OK. Thanks.

Anissa Pratte 10:32

Christina.

Cristina Daza 10:38

Hi. Can we talk a little bit more about the reporting?

How would you like that to be provided? How often?

And since I see here that offer data-driven recommendations, so there this project could evolve and grow.

Hallie Reid 10:59

So As for reporting, of course, we're gonna do internal reporting as well. I think quarter quarterly reporting would be fine from whoever we work with.

And then can you repeat the second part of the question for me?

Cristina Daza 11:17

Since you're asking for recommendations, does this mean that this project could evolve?

Hallie Reid 11:27

It is possible but.

It just depends on how it goes, I guess.

Cristina Daza 11:37

Thanks.

Nicholas Boyett 11:48

I have another just quick question when it comes to like radio advertising, have you guys ever leveraged any other like audio platforms like Spotify or Pandora?

If not, is that something you would be open to?

Hallie Reid 12:02

We have not currently done anything through Spotify or Pandora.

We're open to learning about it, so if we could have some statistics about it that could inform that decision.

Nicholas Boyett 12:15

Awesome. Thanks so much.

Anissa Pratte 12:22

Anybody else?

Christina, see you still have your hand up.

I don't know if you've gotten another one or.

OK.

Any other questions?

There's nothing in the chat room right now.

Questions.

All right.

Well, this was, oh, Alvin, go right ahead.

Alvin McClinton 13:07

Friends or your answers be put in the final addendum, or will it come out in an addendum prior to any other questions that may come up before the end of the question period?

Anissa Pratte 13:21

So we'll do as much as the questions come through. The denom we put out. Like I said the last day of questions for is June 5th.

So you know, if I put one out tomorrow and I've got more attendance between now and the 5th, there'll be a second addendum that comes out and there is a page in the RFP documents where you have to acknowledge those addendums so that we know that you've read.

Everything and you understand everything that we've have given you.

And we don't send those addendums out to each individual person.

Then I'd be sitting here for days doing that.

You have to watch our website if you it's our website, it's a solicitation site called

Vendor Link and another solicitation site called Beacon. As long as you're registered registered for any one of those three, if I modify that solicitation, you will get notification that there has been somet.

Added to that solicitation that you need to go look at, so if you.

Happen to go out and look at that solicitation and you see it's been modified, but you weren't notified. Let me know.

Because I'm I'm trying to.

Alvin McClinton 14:22

Anissa Pratte 14:22

You know, kinda crack the whip on somebody.

Solicitation sites that making sure that you guys are all taken care of but but definitely like I said, keep watching those sites.

We do answer questions via addendum, and I'm hoping to get one out by Monday at the latest, with everything that we've gotten so far, including what's in this presentation today and this meeting is being recorded. So if any of you need a copy of this recording, please e-mail.

Me and I can get you that.

If that helps as well.

Cristina Daza 15:03

I at the moment. Are you working with other companies and if so, are you open to letting us know what they've done and who they are?

Hallie Reid 15:16

So for a project like this we are not working with any other companies currently.

Cristina Daza 15:29

Anissa Pratte 15:42

Don't be shy.

Nicholas Boyett 15:53

Quick question again.

So I know you guys said you're kind of looking to, you know, revamp things, refresh things.

Would you guys be open?

That being said, would you be open to like a logo or brand refresh, or are you kind of wanting to stick to that?

Hallie Reid 16:06

As of right now, I think the plan is to stick with our current branding.

Nicholas Boyett 16:10

So when you when you say you want to kind of revamp and revive things, what exactly?

Are you looking for?

Hallie Reid 16:18

Yeah. So with this project, the goal is more towards our advertising.

So creating a thorough plan for it and then a fresh look to it and kind of just expanding on ideas of what we can do because right now most of our advertising is through social media and I'd like to see some other platforms and suggestions for other plat.

We can use in the future.

Nicholas Boyett 16:40

OK, 'cause, I'm actually going to ask you that next time when it comes to social media, I notice you guys are active on a lot of platforms, but I did.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't see you guys active on Tiktok.

So is that a platform that you guys would be open to?

Hallie Reid 16:54

Think as of right now, we are holding off on Tiktok just to see where it goes in the future.

Nicholas Boyett 17:01

Yeah.

Hallie Reid 17:02

But it's something that could be in the future, just not with this current project.

Nicholas Boyett 17:06

No worries. Thank you.

Anissa Pratte 17:10

Christina, go ahead.

Cristina Daza 17:13

Are do you have any restriction about companies that are not in the in your area or?

Is you're open to any company.

Anissa Pratte 17:24

We are open to any company. We have not put any restrictions in this RFP for, you know, for local people or local companies, you know, like I said, everything's based on qualifications, references, you know your technical abilities, all of that kind of stuff. And as far as.

Cristina Daza 17:39

Perfect.

Anissa Pratte 17:40

The proposals concerned I don't have a specific amount of pages that you're required to submit. However, like I said, if, if short and sweet, and we prefer not to be

300 pages of things, we have to read.

So definitely.

Think about that. When you all are writing your your proposals and you're letting us know about your qualifications, we'd really appreciate that.

And this project and Haley tell me if I'm wrong. This one needs to be completed

100% completed by March 31st of 2026.

Cristina Daza 18:03

Perfect.

Anissa Pratte 18:13

And the reason for that is for turu 'cause. This is using tourism dollars.

Hallie Reid 18:14

Yes.

Anissa Pratte 18:17

Am I correct or?

Hallie Reid 18:19

This is using grant funds, yes.

Anissa Pratte 18:21

Grant funds, yes.

All right.

Expandor is go ahead.

EXPANDOR 18:28

Is Greg.

Greg here, here.

Anissa Pratte 18:30

Hi, Greg.

EXPANDOR 18:30

Good morning.

How are you?

Anissa Pratte 18:32

Good.

EXPANDOR 18:33

Great day.

Great day in Florida, by the way.

So that that piggybacks to my next question, like you mentioned about the grant funds, right, working with government and local agencies and state counties, are these phones already allocated or approved for this project or this is pending of tabulation evaluation from the board director's or the Comm?

Hallie Reid 18:35

Yep.

EXPANDOR 18:50

Or the agency.

In terms of the funding for this project.

The available funds that you have.

Hallie Reid 19:01

So we do have the funds, we still have to get the project approved through the grantor.

EXPANDOR 19:06

Hallie Reid 19:06

So once we do that, we will have.

EXPANDOR 19:10

Appreciate it.

Hallie Reid 19:11

Anissa Pratte 19:19

Anybody else?

OK.

I don't hear any more questions. So thank you everybody.

These have been really great questions and we really appreciate them so much.

Like I said, please look be looking out for those addendums, and if you have any more questions, definitely e-mail me.

Anissa.pratt@townaffairs.org and I hope you all have a really great day.

Nicholas Boyett 19:50

Anissa Pratte 19:50

Thanks everybody.

Cristina Daza 19:50

EXPANDOR 19:50

Alvin McClinton 19:51

Cristina Daza 19:51

You too.

Hallie Reid 19:52

Bye.

Nicholas Boyett 19:53

Bye.

stopped transcription