Visit Plano is currently under contract with Atkins International, LLC, for its advertising agency needs via competitive bid process 2017- 0400-C - RFQ for Advertising Agency (Visit Plano). The total compensation under this current contract is $1,076,600. This amount covers the annual expenditure for advertising/media placement, which is the cost charged by the various media outlets for promoting Plano as a meeting, convention, leisure and sports destination and for special projects.
Due to the approval of the supplements listed below for Visit Plano, we need to raise the estimated annual expenditures for Visit Plano’s advertising contract by $111,000 for new programs listed below and the professional service part of the contract by $14,253 for an estimated annual expenditure of $125,253 to cover the new projects. The increase in professional services will come out of savings in the 2022-23 budget. All funding associated with these expenditures is from the Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue and not from the City of Plano General Fund. Total estimated annual amount for this contract will now be $1,201,853.
Advertising - Key Partner Programing – (46-125-6306)
$60,000 - The Visit Plano Team has been doing what it can to stay competitive in our marketing efforts but every year new marketing efforts and ideas are coming to our attention that would help Plano stand out against some of the surrounding markets. To stay competitive, Visit Plano will be increasing spending with key travel partners where historical spending no longer meets minimums.
· TripAdvisor – our current investment with TripAdvisor is $25,000 and we would like to increase this to $50,000 to get better placement.
· Travelzoo – We did a test with TravelZoo this year spending $15,000 and we would like to increase this to a $25,000 buy. This was a hugely successful program.
· Expedia continues to drive bookings for the leisure and business traveler. We need to add stronger continuity, expand targeted placements to business and VRBO placements. We would like to increase this buy from $25,000 to $50,000.
Each of these increases were highly recommended by our hotels because each of these buys has a direct impact on hotel bookings.
How will it help grow our business? Recommended partners have established success with Visit Plano engagement and reach.
· TripAdvisor’s native placements drove engagement at +.18% CTR
· Visit Plano’s TravelZoo buy set historic records with over 6 minutes time on site
· Expedia continues to drive lodging for leisure and business travel
As the pandemic lessens, travel plans for the holidays and for 2023 continue to increase.
· 91% cited they are excited to travel within the next 6 months. (from Longwoods International)
Advertising – Media Buy – (46-125-6306)
$35,000 – As stated earlier, the Visit Plano team has been doing what it can to stay competitive in our marketing efforts, but we feel that COVID has changed travel and the traveler. The Visit Plano Team would like to enlarge our leverage on our key travel markets by utilizing new and expanded touchpoints for a greater impact in the neighboring markets.
· Expand DFW incremental plan: Digital and print advertorials (i.e., D Magazine, Fort Worth Magazine, DFW Child, Relocation magazines)
· Spur group travel especially among wedding and family reunions (The Knot, Aisle Planner, Texas Weddings, VOD & app placements)
How will it help grow our business? Specific targets show strong affinity for Plano offerings and have a higher potential or incidence of travel to Plano.
Advertising - Swiftype – Custom Search – (46-125-6306)
$16,000 - This tool allows users to search dynamically, expanding on simple searches by enabling users to refine results by attributes such as date, price, author, location, and content type. The autocomplete feature guides users to the content, answers, and products that matter most with real-time results as they type.
How will it help grow our business? With Swiftype's crawler, Visit Plano can gather and index data from website users who search for anything on the website, including conversations and autocompletes. This information can help define future recommendations to users, as well as help users find content faster and creating a better experience.
Each of the above supplements were approved through the budgeting process but because there is a current contract cap we have with Atkins International, LLC, we will not be able to move forward on these projects until the contract is amended to include these supplemental amounts.
In addition to Modification No. 1 listed above, Modification No. 2 was also executed for an annual amount of $36,000.
If not approved, Visit Plano will not be able to proceed with these projects and this will have a substantial impact on our marketing efforts for the City of Plano and for our hospitality partners.