Fremont City Council Meeting: 05/07/24 07:00 PM
3300 Capitol Avenue Div/Dept: City Manager's Office
Fremont, CA 94538 Category: Agreements and Contracts
SCHEDULED
Sponsors:
COUNCIL STAFF REPORT (ID # 5151) DOC ID: 5151
Updated: 5/2/2024 3:41 PM by Dina Lewis Page 1
RENEWAL OF PUBLIC RELATIONS/COMMUNICATIONS CONTRACT - Authorize the City Manager to enter a contract with The Hoffman Agency for Public Relations Services
Contact Persons:
Name: Geneva Bosques Cheryl Golden
Title: Director of Communications and
Legislative Affairs
Communications Manager
Div/Dept: City Manager's Office City Manager's Office
Phone: 510-284-4094 510-284-4025
E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected]
Executive Summary: Since December 2012, the City has contracted with public relations firm, the Hoffman Agency (Hoffman), for the development and maintenance of an integrated marketing and communications strategy in order to effectively communicate about Fremont to key target audiences by promoting areas of interest and economic growth, profiling events, and enhancing residents’ access to transparent information and civic pride. Hoffman’s strong understanding of the Fremont community, professional approach, and self-recognized ability to deviate from status quo, has directly contributed to the success of Fremont’s brand. Staff wishes to continue the partnership currently in place as it pertains to development of new communication strategies for the City, community relations support, and maintenance of digital assets.
Staff is therefore requesting approval for the City Manager, or her designee, to execute a three-year contract with an annual not-to-exceed amount of $240,840.
BACKGROUND: The need to enhance and maintain a robust and dedicated communications and civic engagement strategy is a high priority for the City. In December 2012, the City first began working with the Hoffman Agency, to promote the City of Fremont and establish a media plan to communicate a positive impression of Fremont to target audiences, primarily focused on economic development activities and efforts. Standing proudly as the Bay Area’s fourth largest City, Fremont is faced with a variety of dynamic issues and longer- term projects, including enhanced ongoing engagement with residents, driving increased local and national exposure through storytelling, and continuing to strengthen its role in Silicon Valley.
The Hoffman Agency offers a full array of services including strategic counsel, positioning and messaging, executive communications and customer outreach programs, media relations, connections to policy related thought leaders, recommendations on speaking engagements, and specialized expertise in the broadcast and online communications spaces.
Together with the Hoffman Agency, the City has completed several major communications initiatives across City operations during the last contract period. Key accomplishments include a comprehensive audit of the City’s social media channels, a refresh of the City’s business website thinksiliconvalley.com, new City profile infographics, a new Council Staff Report (ID # 5151) Meeting of May 7, 2024 Updated: 5/2/2024 3:41 PM by Dina Lewis Page 2
Communications Guide for City staff, media campaigns for all major City initiatives, related articles, and social media posts. The City’s partnership with the Hoffman Agency has resulted in amplifying the Fremont brand with increased local, national, and international media coverage highlighting the City of Fremont in several major publications, websites, and news broadcasts.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS: As news cycles accelerate and the volume of information society has access to increases, the demand for citywide communications remains high. The City Council continues to emphasize the importance of citywide communications in order to share information, particularly about top community and Council priorities. Following the COVID-19 Pandemic, the City experienced a significant increase in followers to the City’s wide variety of digital communications, most notably the weekly Fremont Connection newsletter. In total, the City has more than a dozen digital newsletters and topical interest lists, approximately 35 social media channels, a government TV channel, and over one dozen websites. Digital communication has become an essential service for local government.
The City embraces the philosophy that information sharing about programs and services builds greater confidence and trust in our community. The City’s continued partnership with the Hoffman Agency is paramount in supporting this overall effort and provides necessary technical assistance, resources and expertise.
No cost increase has been proposed by the Hoffman Agency for this contract, nor was there during the previous three-year term. Additionally, this proposal combines four existing contracts (PR/marketing, writing, website-maintenance fees, and the annual website hosting fee) with the Hoffman Agency into one cohesive workplan, which will result in more efficient administration. (Note, The Hoffman Agency also contracts with the City’s Human Resources Department for police recruitment, which will remain a separate agreement.)
City staff and Hoffman have developed the following Citywide marketing/public relations and writing plan for the next year. The Hoffman Agency will assist the City of Fremont with:
• Citywide Strategic Vision for External Communications o Develop communication outreach strategies on a wide variety of complex and high priority projects and increase its media coverage. o Identify trending, macro-level topics on which the City can comment as a thought leader, across multiple City functions.
• Community Engagement Initiatives
o Develop communication outreach strategies to advance adopted Council priorities.
o Innovate with City staff on new methods and tools for Community Civic Engagement on a wide variety of issues.
• Strategic Media Relations
o Supplement City communications with marketing across a broad range of communication channels, to include social media outreach, print and news media coordination.
• Writing Projects
o Deliver 40 hours per month to Fremont to support communications while providing a level of flexibility with the communications writing projects. If one Council Staff Report (ID # 5151) Meeting of May 7, 2024 Updated: 5/2/2024 3:41 PM by Dina Lewis Page 3
month is particularly busy with projects, Hoffman can scale down activities for the next month (and vice versa).
o An additional 4 – 8 hours per month will be allocated to a senior member of the current Fremont/Hoffman PR team to provide senior counseling on the communications writing projects.
• Performance Metrics
o The Hoffman Agency will provide metrics to measure the success of the public relations and marketing communications campaigns.
Cost of Monthly Services
Public Relations/Marketing Program: $15,000/month
Writing Program: $5,000/month
Think Silicon Valley Website Maintenance: $45/month
Think Silicon Valley Hosting Fee: $300 (annual cost)
Staff proposes a three-year agreement with The Hoffman Agency through June 30, 2027, with an annual not-to-exceed amount of $240,840.
Procurement of these services complies with the requirements of Section 3.20.320 of the Fremont Municipal Code.
FISCAL IMPACT: Sufficient funding is included in the FY 2024/25 Proposed Operating Budget to cover the first-year cost of this agreement.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: This action is not subject to environmental review because award of this contract is not a project within the meaning of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in accordance with CEQA Guidelines Section 15061 (b)(3) and 15378(b) as it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that award of the contract will have a significant effect on the environment and the award is an administrative activity that will not result in an effect on the physical environment.
ATTACHMENTS: None.
RECOMMENDATION: Authorize the City Manager, or her designee, to execute a contract with The Hoffman Agency for public relations, marketing, written communications and web- site maintenance services at a not-to-exceed amount of $240,840 per year for a three-year term.