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Consider approving Resolution No. 2019-56 approving a professional services agreement with Ballyhoo Media and Marketing not to exceed $150,000 for marketing and media services; and take appropriate action
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BACKGROUND:
The Discover Farmers Branch campaign is primarily a digital ad campaign that has focused on three main areas; The promotion of the City's larger special events, the Demo/Rebuild Program, and Tourism (things to do, hotel stays, stay & play packages etc.)
The campaign uses targeted digital ads, google ad words, social ads and email marketing to drive users to discoverfarmersbranch.com to learn more about events, attractions and programs. The target audience varies depending on the promotion but generally is directed at people within a 30 min drive time of Farmers Branch.
The Discover Farmers Branch campaign was launched in April 2017, with the help of Pyro Brand Marketing who assisted in the creation and implementation of the campaign. Once the initial creative for the campaign had been developed, City Staff has handled any additional creative needs in-house, primarily using PYRO only for the purchasing of media through 2017 and 2018.
In an effort to maximize the campaign budget, in October 2018, staff began researching other options for purchasing media. While Pyro is a professional agency fully capable of executing any marketing and media needs, their fees are on the higher end of the spectrum and their attentiveness to the City's campaign was waning. The goal was to find a vendor who offered more competitive pricing to allow room in the budget to add SEO Management for the Discover website, a competitive media management fee, regular reporting on the campaign analytics and could offer additional services if needed.
City staff met with three other vendors capable of managing the media buying for the campaign. Cumulus Digital, I Heart Radio and Ballyhoo Media and Marketing. I Heart Radio was quickly eliminated as they were not in t...
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