BOCC set to tap $200K for TEAM marketing

BOCC set to tap $200K for TEAM marketing

By Deborah Nelson
July 8, 2008

Santa Rosa Commissioners are expected, Thursday, to approve $200,000 to market the area to aerospace industry. Early efforts will focus on the KC-45 Refueling Tanker assembly plant in Mobile.

The $200,000 will come from Electric Franchise Fee economic development reserves.

Of that amount, $50,000 will go towards an already-begun, no-bid contract with Pensacola-based Birdwell Photography & Multimedia, Inc (BPM). The remaining $150,000 will be released as needed for future, unspecified marketing efforts, officials said.

The BPM contract is part of a regional effort to encourage aerospace industry in the area, according to commissioners.

Santa Rosa will pay for the marketing contract and the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce is funding an aerospace workforce study, according to PBACC Senior Vice President for Economic Development Charles Webb. Chamber of Commerce employees will be available to update a new regional website specified in the BPM contract, he said.

Okaloosa County is also expected to participate in marketing efforts, as well as states west of Florida. Efforts to establish the Gulf Coast as an aerospace center extend from Stennis AFB in Mississippi to Panama City, Wood said.

“If you really look at the Gulf Coast, there’s a tremendous amount of assets,” he remarked.”

The BPM contract originally covered $200,000 worth of services, but after the U.S. Government Accountability Office questioned the KC-45 contract award, it was scaled back to $50,000.

That $50,000 will focus on a planned trip to the Farnborough International Airshow in England, according to the revised contract amendment. The Santa Rosa Chronicle obtained the contract from the Santa Rosa Attorney, after a request to TEAM Santa Rosa went unanswered.

The contract could be extended, in the future.

“The original AGREEMENT may be amended at a later date to add re-include [removed] items and/or other interests of [TEAM Santa Rosa] by mutual agreement between the parties…” according to the new terms.

According to County documents, the $50,000 contract covers the following Marketing Tasks:

Obtain Farnborough guest list from Cordes
Set face-to-face meeting with EADS to secure lead list
Set face-to-face with Northrop Grumman to secure lead list
Ask about press conference and timing
Collateral needs addressed for press conference
Assign team to begin collecting assets to adequately describe Region/International bent
----Creative direction, copy, visuals, video, 3D, mapping
Secure URL, www.GulfCoastAerospaceandDefense.com for Farnborough marketing strategy
Identify ad hire linguist Spanish, French and German for communication
Begin collecting all relevant research
Execute creative strategy for logo and overall campaign web concepts
Begin Dossier of EADS suppliers and attendees – results due June 12th
Results from Washington and Europe media buying research to BPM on June 3d

The original, $200,000 contract also included ‘Branding,’ ‘Advertising and Collateral,’ and ‘Public Relations’ tasks. Those items were removed for the downsized, $50,000 agreement.

But if they are reactivated in the future, it appears some members of the local media will be tapped to help disseminate government and industry information points, in the form of free ‘editorials.’

Under ‘Public Relations,’ the original contract states that “Free media (editorial stories placed in every applicable newspaper, magazine and tabloid in targeted area) will be fully leveraged.”

The contract does not specify what kind of leverage will be most useful in getting those free ‘editorial’ pieces published. But the language does leave room to bill TEAM extra for any paid media advertisement.

That’s because the original contract includes a ‘media plan,’ but does not take actual advertising costs into account. Instead, TEAM would be billed an extra amount, above and beyond the original $200,000, for print, broadcast, outdoor and other advertising.

The contract does not specify which media outlets might be most open to participating in ‘free’ placed editorials to help distribute government information.

It does not specify any specific number of jobs marketing efforts must produce.