This RFP has been prepared to seek prospective Proponents’ background information and pricing quotations to be PSHSA’s Vendor of Record (VOR) for Marketing and Advertising Services.
PSHSA is seeking the services of one or more qualified creative design and/or marketing agencies to provide creative design and development, copywriting, web design and development, account management and related services for an ongoing period of three (3) years, with the potential for an extension.
Expectations of VOR
The successful Proponent(s) must have all the required experience, resources, facilities, equipment and trained personnel or contractors necessary to perform the work specified in this RFP.
The selected Proponent(s) is also expected to familiarize themselves and their teams with PSHSA’s business, the sectors it represents and its funder for a sound understanding of Ontario’s health and safety system and its priorities as it relates to occupational health and safety within the province’s public and broader public sector. It is important that our partners understand the system complexities and can work effectively balancing requirements from the marketing team, perspectives of subject matter experts and direction from PSHSA’s senior leadership team.
PSHSA’s marketing and communications activities often require review and approval by multiple parties. These review processes can be lengthy but are necessary to ensure we capture the nuances within the sectors we represent and Ontario’s health and safety system. These review and feedback cycles will need to be taken into consideration by the Proponent(s) when planning projects, key milestones, and timelines.
While some projects will be planned in advance, the services related to this RFP will typically be requested on an ad hoc basis. This will depend on changing system priorities, PSHSA’s overall resources, budgets, events calendar, and other variables that make planning in advance difficult. The successful Proponent(s) must be flexible, resourceful, and creative to meet these demands.
At times, the selected Proponent(s) will also be expected to work directly with other PSHSA vendors in order to deliver on certain projects (e.g., product and service suppliers, printers).
The selected Proponent(s) will need to work with and be familiar with asset usage, business rules around use and overall approach to branding in both digital and print formats.
The successful Proponent(s) is also expected to make themselves available for meetings, conference calls, creative and concept presentations.
Scope of Potential Services
Creative Design & Development
In some instances, PSHSA will advise and brief the selected Proponent(s) on an already established creative direction or theme. In other cases, PSHSA will look to the successful Proponent(s) to plan and conceptualize options for creative design and brand positioning that translate the marketing team’s initial thoughts or ideas.
Creative will be required to have a similar look and feel to PSHSA’s current branding (i.e., fonts, palette, logos, stylistic elements).
Examples of creative design and development services may include:
- Advertising, including the sizing and delivery of print-ready and/or web-ready files to meet various specifications
- Marketing collateral or sales enablement materials (e.g., infographics, posters, fact sheets, sell sheets, research commercialization materials, event/tradeshow display materials)
- Graphic design and layout and formatting of corporate documents (e.g., annual report, strategic plan)
- Brand assets and guidelines (e.g., Microsoft Office templates)
- Product-based branding or logo development
- Videos or animations for social media, presentations, website, events, etc.
- Development of graphical assets for websites, promotional products and other such printable or digital requirements for a variety of mediums, image sourcing for any of the above
Copywriting
In most instances, copy will be provided by PSHSA. Though there may be cases where we look to the selected proponent to ideate creative advertising copy, particularly when it comes to product or program-based campaigns.
Web Design & Development
Examples of web design and development and design services may include:
- Information architecture and user experience recommendations for corporate website and any microsites
- Wireframes and prototypes
- Front-end development
- Back-end development
- Dynamic assessments, forms or surveys that integrate logic
- QA and user testing
Account Management
PSHSA requires an individual contact from the selected vendor to work in collaboration with our marketing and communications team on all projects. This individual will work closely with PSHSA to manage team performance with respect to quality of work, identify gaps, manage project timelines, and budget and oversee overall project coordination according to the objectives set at the briefing stage.
2.4 Out Of Scope
The following services are considered out of scope for the purposes of this RFP.
- In the course of marketing and communications activities, PSHSA engages various stakeholders for approvals and sign-offs. These subject matter experts ensure content credibility, appropriate use of language and imagery, and validation for all content concerning our sector-specific audiences. PSHSA will manage any and all review cycles, handling distribution internally and externally to the various stakeholders/subject matter experts and gathering any feedback, approvals and sign-offs
- Though the selected Proponent(s) may be asked to develop content for social media use, all PSHSA owned social media channels and community management continues to live with PSHSA.
- Campaign management and media buying
- SEO
- Search engine marketing
- Social media marketing
