AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY
AGENDA ITEM NO. 8E
AGENCY: City Council
MEETING DATE: July 25, 2022
DEPARTMENT: Administration
PRESENTED BY: S McCormick
EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]
TITLE:
Receive Report and Consider Adoption of City Council Resolution Approving Professional Services Agreement with Creative Thinking, Inc., DBA The Idea Cooperative for Marketing Strategy Development and Execution and Authorizing the City Manager to Execute Contract (Amount Not to Exceed $180,000: Account No. 110-4321-0319)
ISSUE:
On November 19, 2019 the Visit Fort Bragg Committee (VFB) voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council approve a contract with The Idea Cooperative to implement marketing strategy for the City. The City was pleased with services rendered and approved Resolution 4417-2021 to continue contracting with Idea Cooperative for FY 2021-2022. This agreement expired on June 30, 2022 and a new contract is required to continue with services.
City Council appropriated funds in the FY 2022-2023 budget for this activity and sufficient funds are available. Per City policy, all contracts over $50,000 are required to be brought forward to Council as an item under Conduct of Business.
ANALYSIS:
The Idea Cooperative, located in Petaluma, has provided the City with marketing/advertising services, design/creative services, and social media content creation since December 2019.
Initially, Idea Cooperative conducted an audit of existing materials, created a strategic positioning concept and integrated marketing strategy, and did a complete overhaul of the Visit Fort Bragg website (www.visitfortbraggca.com).
The COVID-19 pandemic and health orders requiring people to shelter in place created tremendous financial uncertainty for the City. In April 2020, Council directed staff to make approximately $1.4 million in General Fund budget reductions, which included placing a freeze on all Measure AA/AB Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) allocations. This included the 1% TOT allocated to finance the VFB promotional efforts. Concerned with long term impacts resulting from abruptly ending all marketing and promotional efforts, the Idea Cooperative offered limited services for a four-month period.
The four-month contract expired October 2020, and by this time the City’s TOT revenue had rebounded. As a result, Council approved additional budget to retain The Idea Cooperative through the remainder of FY 2020-2021. The Idea Cooperative has proven responsive, nimble, and skilled with marketing and promotional activities for the City. Beginning as a strictly outbound destination marketing strategy, and then shifting the messaging when
needing to support public health orders to slow the transmission of COVID-19 or to address drought conditions.
This past fiscal year, The Idea Cooperative continued ongoing promotional support to drive engagement, increasing followers that provide Fort Bragg with a large online community of loyal, regular visitors. Evidence of success is in online analytics:
• Website: July 1, 2020 > June 30, 2021: 45,572 Users
Website: July 1, 2021 > June 30, 2022: 60,947 Users
• Shoulder Season Digital Campaign: 2021 > 2022 - Over 500K Impressions + 7,000 Site Clicks
• E-Newsletter Subscribers: (avg. + 160/mo.) Currently 3,571 Subscribers Another point deserving attention are recent efforts to weave community-oriented events that improve the quality of life for local residents, while enhancing the visitor experience, such as supporting the marketing and promotions for the Magic Market and Winter Wonderland events. And during the recent Blue Economy Symposium & Learning Festival event, The Idea Cooperative worked behind the scenes to bolster both local and visitor engagement in this exciting economic development opportunity:
• Creative Content in the form of posters, postcards, agendas and T-shirts; • E-Newsletter “Stories” featuring Noyo Harbormaster Anna Neumann, TNC Kelp Project Director Tristin McHugh and Urchin Diver Grant Downie, as well as Heather Sears, Wendy Holloway and the Princess Seafood crew;
• Photography of Blue Economy Symposium & Learning Festival, including portraits of symposium presenters, as well as general shots to capture the moment and document the many people and activities involved; and
• Website development of an event page that evolved as the planning progressed, refined following the event to capture the breadth of event, and a repository for future blue economy efforts.
An extensive winter visit campaign is planned to significantly increase awareness of shoulder season activities. Already, ideas are being generated about how to bolster what would be the third Holiday Gift Guide campaign with efforts like coordinating Holiday PopUps! at local galleries, and creating supporting e-newsletter stories highlighting local artists and makers. Efforts like this drive visitors to Fort Bragg to experience what makes our community unique, while also improving the quality of life for locals and supporting businesses.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Adopt Resolution approving the professional services agreement with The Idea Cooperative and authorize the City Manager to execute the contract.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
1. Provide staff additional direction.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The total budget available for Visit Fort Bragg for FY 2022-2023 is $220,500.
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IMPACT:
A successful Visit Fort Bragg Campaign will increase travel to and from Fort Bragg, essentially all of which would be by personal vehicle. The additional trips will increase greenhouse gas emissions.
CONSISTENCY:
Hiring a creative firm to continue to build the Visit Fort Bragg brand is consistent with City Council Priority Area: Jobs/Industry and Goal 3 – Foster and help sustain local businesses.
IMPLEMENTATION/TIMEFRAMES:
The Idea Cooperative will begin work as soon as the contract is executed.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Resolution
2. Contract
NOTIFICATION:
1. Tom Kavanaugh, The Idea Cooperative
2. Notify Me subscriber lists: Economic Development Planning; Tourism and Marketing
3. Visit Fort Bragg Committee Members