Attachment_A_-_Scope_of_Services.pdf

ATTACHMENT A ‐ SCOPE OF SERVICES

A. General Information

Leon County Division of Tourism a/k/a Visit Tallahassee (Visit Tallahassee), is the official destination marketing organization for Tallahassee and Leon County. The destination is the capital of Florida, home to both Florida State University and Florida A&M University, and is a diverse destination featuring nature‐based opportunities, history and heritage attractions, excellent visual and performing arts, an array of meeting and sports venues and much more.

Leon County wishes to engage the services of a professional design/publishing firm to produce two publications: its 2021/2022 Official Visitor Guide (print and digital) and 2021/2022 Meeting & Event Planner’s Guide (digital). Fees for these services shall be presented as outlined in Section C.,2., below.

Project timing shall be described under the “Time Schedule” section of the proposer’s response.

Visit Tallahassee will work with a publishing partner to develop a new or existing model for the Visitor Guide to accomplish the goal of having a consumer‐friendly printed piece. This is a top line comprehensive magazine that provides meaningful content about Tallahassee as a vacation or meetings destination and generates traffic to the website for a more detailed description of the destination’s attributes. The Visitor Guide and Meeting Planner’s Guide serve as the primary fulfillment pieces for consumer and meeting planner inquiries generated from a variety of different sources. For more information on distribution of the Visitor Guide and Meeting & Event Planner’s Guide, see Section C., 5., below.

The function of the Visitor Guide is to present Tallahassee and Leon County as a leisure destination to potential visitors in an informative and appealing manner. Visit Tallahassee places statewide and regional advertising, the purpose of which is to encourage potential visitors to request the Guide then convert that inquiry into a multi‐day visit. Visit Tallahassee encourages respondents to use creativity and develop thoughtful proposals that can accomplish an exceptionally designed product.

The Meeting & Event Planner’s Guide is focused on public meeting venues, accommodations with meeting space, special off‐site opportunities, sports facilities and services that a meeting or event planner might require. The digital publication is designed to target meeting and conference planners, group tour planners, wedding and reunion planners and sporting event producers.

A Florida‐based company with experience in producing Florida destination publications is highly desired as is a company with local knowledge.

B. Services

1. The vendor shall be responsible to Visit Tallahassee for updating the current appearance (design), narrative editing, photography, advertising content, setting of advertising fees (with Visit Tallahassee approval) and selling and collection of advertising fees, printing the Visitor Guide and digitization of the Meeting Planner’s Guide. Staff will work closely with the vendor on the editorial and photography elements of the publications.

2. Overall Creative: In the 2019 and 2020 versions of both Guides, advertising is formatted and allowed throughout the publications. However creative proposals are welcome based on possible new proposed publishing models. Visit Tallahassee is open to the creative placement of advertisements and presentation of editorial content to make the Guides more user friendly. Visit Tallahassee will have final approval of overall creative, editorial content and the placements of advertising to ensure brand consistency.

3. Strategic Planning: The publishing company selected will work with staff and the advertising agency of record to determine the front cover designs and interior content pagination of the Guides. Visit Tallahassee will provide a list of its key staff members associated with the project.

a. The company selected will work with Visit Tallahassee and the advertising agency as requested to select the brand images and photo library images that will be required for layout inclusion.

b. The company selected will work with staff and Visit Tallahassee’s advertising agency, if requested, to approve brand consistency prior to beginning layout and design of individual pages. Three rounds of proofs required to Visit Tallahassee in .PDF and hard copy formats, if requested, in keeping with the mutually agreed upon timeline as outlined in vendor’s response. Final review to be completed and approved by Visit Tallahassee prior to being released for print.

c. The awarded publishing company will be responsible for providing a detailed and mutually agreed upon production schedule prior to the launching of the projects.

Targeted delivery date for the printed Visitor Guide is September/October 2021 and targeted delivery date for the digital Meeting & Event Planner’s Guide is October/November 2021.

Any adjustments to the production schedule and targeted delivery date must be mutually agreed upon by both parties.

d. Visit Tallahassee will provide publishing company an updated and detailed Excel spreadsheet and/or Word document of all content, including special event listings, attractions, restaurants, retail establishments and hotels/lodging for the Guides.

e. Visit Tallahassee will be responsible for all corrections and revisions to the listing portions as provided by Visit Tallahassee to ensure that the most up‐to‐date information has been included in the Guides prior to final printer release.

4. Editorial Coverage: The term “editorial” as used in this document refers to narrative editorial content. Visit Tallahassee will supply primary editorial content. We require the vendor to provide constructive, directive suggestions. Visit Tallahassee may request additional editorial content from the company at a mutually agreed upon price.

The goal is to offer a format with 50% editorial and 50% advertising ratio.

5. Photography: Visit Tallahassee has a supply of photography, but the publisher should be prepared to provide photography that they have obtained full permission to use, or to shoot additional photography if needed. Photography must be approved by Visit Tallahassee prior to use.

6. Size and Weight: The size of the current Visitor Guide is 8 3/8” x 10 7/8”, trimmed. Currently, the 2020 Visitor Guide is an 84‐page, perfect‐bound publication that is mailed in a 9x12 booklet envelope. Visit Tallahassee is open to suggestions on size and format; however, the vendor should be prepared to suggest cover, paper stock, and finish to minimize weight while maintaining superior quality. Visit Tallahassee’s goal is to maintain the page count of the publication if ample advertising can be sold. Final paper selection will be determined by Visit Tallahassee. The current Meeting & Event Planner’s Guide is a digital 38‐page digital publication 8 ½ by 5 ½ on 80# gloss text. Visit Tallahassee is open to suggestions on size and format for the Meeting & Event Planner Guide.

7. Frequency of Publication: Following the 2021/2022 issue, Visit Tallahassee would like to produce annually for both Guides. Suggestions as to other optional publishing schedules will be welcomed and reviewed by Visit Tallahassee.

8. Quantity: 120,000 Visitor Guides were produced for distribution in FY2019 and 4,000 Meeting

& Event Planner’s Guides were produced. Visit Tallahassee would like to decrease the number of guides produced to 70,000 printed guides, as many people are moving towards viewing the guide online. Visit Tallahassee would like the Meeting & Event Planner’s Guide to only be produced digitally. Visit Tallahassee is willing to consider alternate amounts of Visitor Guides to be printed.

9. Paper stock: Visitor Guide quality comparable to prior years specifications: cover: 80# text coated for 4‐pages: 50# text coated stock for 80‐pages. Suggestions as to other paper stock will be welcomed and reviewed by Visit Tallahassee.

10. Ink: Four‐color and bleeds throughout, light to medium coverage inside, heavy on cover.

Varnish outside front cover.

11. Binding: Perfect binding for the Visitor Guide.

C. PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

1. Target Market: Primarily families, couples and friends traveling together from Florida, direct fly‐markets and the Southeast who are planning or considering a getaway to Florida. Additional audiences include sports group, meetings and groups. Primary out‐of‐state markets include Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Texas.

According to our research, over 2 million visitors enjoy Tallahassee and Leon County annually.

2. Advertising in the Guide: Publishing company will create the sales kit for advertising sales purposes. The Guides are to be produced at no cost to Leon County. Advertising in both Guides is intended to pay the total costs associated with designing, producing, and printing the Guides.

The vendor is responsible for selling advertising in both Guides and collecting payment. The company selected will have a sales team dedicated to selling in market. The vendor is also responsible for working with Visit Tallahassee on the formatted ad template. Advertising in both Guides shall be 4‐color. The vendor will be responsible for proofing the individual ads with the advertiser. Advertising options are to be proposed by the vendor. All ads and ad rate cards are subject to final approval and inclusion by Visit Tallahassee.

Examples of potential advertisers that may be solicited for inclusion are: accommodations in Leon County and activities, dining, shopping and other tourism related businesses in Leon and surrounding counties. Examples of businesses not to be solicited include real estate, relocation companies, adult entertainment establishments, escort services, tattoo parlors, and accommodations outside of Leon County. Please note that Visit Tallahassee is not a member supported organization but is supported by Tourist Development Tax collection based upon accommodations in Leon County. Visit Tallahassee is open to discussing additional opportunities to include digital ad sales and value‐added opportunities to assist vendor in selling ads.

3. Section Guidelines for Visitor Guide:

a. Must contain a full listing of all accommodations as provided by Visit Tallahassee.

b. Listings may contain the property name, address, phone number and website URL

(provided by Visit Tallahassee).

c. Must contain a Calendar of Events for the year (provided by Visit Tallahassee).

d. Must contain information about activity opportunities (attractions, arts, outdoors, sports history heritage sites, biking, golf, state parks, and water activities) in Leon County.

e. Must include information on dining/restaurants and nightlife in Leon County.

f. Must include information on shopping in Leon County.

g. Must contain a “Visitor Information” section to assist in trip planning.

h. May contain regional editorial/assets such as trails, scenic drives and special sections such as Doing Business and Traveling with Pets.

4. Proofing: Visit Tallahassee must review and approve all photography, content, listings and advertising that will appear in both Guides. Visit Tallahassee must sign off on all final pages before going to the printer and will hold the publisher responsible for providing a product that matches the proofs that were approved.

5. Distribution: Visit Tallahassee will handle inquiry fulfillment of the Visitor Guide, to include storage, addressing, and preparation for mailing of the Guide to those inquiries with advanced coordination with Visit Tallahassee staff. The vendor will direct the printer to ship the Guide to a predetermined location in greater Tallahassee.

The Company is required to turn all digital files over to the Visit Tallahassee advertising agency of record who is charged with providing a digital version of the guides for consumers to view online via the Visit Tallahassee website.

Visit Tallahassee distribution points include, but are not limited to, the Visitor Information Center at Cascades Park, the Historic Amtrak Building Visitor Information Center, kiosks, or appropriate brochure racks at the Tallahassee International Airport, local hotels, local attractions, group service requests and reader response fulfillment. The Visitor Guide is also distributed at all official State of Florida Welcome Centers, at all Florida AAA offices and at selected consumer and travel industry trade shows.

Visit Tallahassee desires the Visitor Guide to be packaged in cartons of approximately 50‐100 Guides per carton, on skids and drop‐shipped to a storage facility of Visit Tallahassee specification.

6. Size Requirements: The Visitor Guide will be a 8 3/8” x 10 7/8”, trimmed, perfectly bound book.

Visit Tallahassee’s goal is to increase the page count of the publication if ample advertising can be sold, but at a minimum the publication must be a minimum of 72‐pages.

D. SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Term of Contract: Contract will be effective for a two (2) year period from the date of notice with the option to renew for a three (3) one (1) year terms.

2. Ownership: All materials and work supplied will be the property of Visit Tallahassee and Leon

County.

3. Revenue: Both Guides will be produced, printed and/or digitized and delivered at no cost to Visit Tallahassee or Leon County. Revenue must cover all costs associated with the project.

Publisher must pay all vendor bills directly.

4. Size: The Visitor Guide must be a minimum of 72‐pages, understanding that Visit Tallahassee’s goal is to increase the page count of the publication if ample advertising can be sold.

5. Delivery: Vendor must guarantee delivery of a minimum number of Guides by proposed deadline.

6. Database: If requested, awarded Company shall provide Visit Tallahassee with electronic copies of each section of each final Guide, in a format approved by the County.

7. Project timing: The 2021/2022 Visitor Guide is targeted to be delivered in September/October 2021. In order to make that deadline, advertising sales need to begin immediately after the successful proposer has received the Notice of Proceed. The 2021/2022 digital Meeting & Event Planner’s Guide is to be delivered in October/November2021.