DEPARTMENT: Animal Care Services
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Heber Lefgren
COUNCIL DISTRICT(S) IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT:
ACS Marketing Services Contract with aMAEzing, LLC
SUMMARY:
An Ordinance authorizing a contract with aMAEzing, LLC to provide marketing and advertising services to Animal Care Services in the amount of up to $150,000.00 per Fiscal Year for a term of February 1, 2017 through September 30, 2019 with the option to renew two one-year terms. The estimated total amount of funds for the three-year contract is $420,000.00.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
ACS has contracted with marketing agency, aMAEzing, LLC since Fiscal Year 2012 to carry out annual marketing campaigns aimed at local pet owners. Past messaging has highlighted animal welfare and the various tenets of responsible pet ownership including awareness of State and local animal-related laws, “leash…not loose”, and spay/neuter. The purpose of this marketing contract is to create new ACS marketing campaigns and media buying services.
On November 2, 2016, a Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued to solicit responses from qualified Respondents for a full-service bilingual advertising and marketing agency to collaborate with ACS on impactful outreach awareness that encourages responsible pet ownership and the humane treatment of our community’s pets. The City held a pre-submittal conference at ACS on November 9, 2016 to answer questions from potential Respondents. The proposal was advertised to the public in the San Antonio Express News, the City’s website, TVSA (Spectrum Cable Channel 21) and 372 outreach notices were sent to existing City, current ACS, and locally-registered marketing and advertising vendors as well as 3,230 Veteran-Owned small businesses notifying them of the RFP and how to apply.
The RFP closed on December 2, 2016 and six responses were received. One proposal was deemed non-responsive for failure to meet the Small Business Economic Development Advocacy (SBEDA) sub-contracting requirement and one proposal voluntarily removed themselves from the RFP review process. The remaining four proposals were submitted to the Evaluation Committee for scoring. The six-member Evaluation Committee included representatives from ACS, Human Resources, and Department of Arts & Culture. The Evaluation Committee met on December 19, 2016 and recommended interviews for the top two-ranked firms. These firms were interviewed on January 5, 2017. The Evaluation Committee recommended award to aMAEzing, LLC.
Vendors were evaluated based on the firm’s qualifications, experience, quality of service, previous performance, reference review, proposed plan and price schedule. The evaluation of each proposal is based on a total of 100 points; 20 points allotted for experience, background, qualifications; 30 points allotted for the proposed plan and 15 points allotted for respondent’s price schedule. Twenty preference points were allotted for the Small Business Economic Development Advocacy (SBEDA) Program, in addition to 10 points allotted for Local Preference Program and five points for the Veteran-Owned Small Business Preference Program.
Based on the proposal submission and corresponding interviews, staff recommends entering into agreement with aMAEzing, LLC to provide marketing services to ACS.
ISSUE:
This Ordinance authorizes a contract with aMAEzing, LLC to provide marketing and advertising services to Animal Care Services in the amount of up to $150,000.00 per Fiscal Year for a term of February 1, 2017 through September 30, 2019 with the option to renew two one-year terms. The estimated total amount of funds for the three-year contract is $420,000.00.
aMAEzing will be responsible for the performance and/or manage the performance of all: requested strategic planning, project management, marketing, creative concepts, production/design, media planning, media buying and evaluation, and all related accounting and reporting requirements.
This contract will be awarded in compliance with the Small Business Economic Development Advocacy (SBEDA) Program, which requires contracts be reviewed by a Goal Setting Committee to establish a requirement and/or incentive unique to the particular contract in an effort to maximize the amount of small, minority, and women-owned business participation on the contract. The Goal Setting Committee applied the Emerging Small and Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprise Prime Contract Program with twenty (20) evaluation preference points awarded to aMAEzing, LLC, as they are certified ESBE and M/WBE firm located within the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area. Additionally, Goal Setting Committee also set a 7% Minority/Women Business Enterprise (M/WBE) subcontracting goal. aMAEzing, LLC has committed to 100% M/WBE subcontractor participation.
In accordance with Local Preference Program, the recommended Respondent received 10 points for being headquartered within the incorporated San Antonio city limits.
There were no proposals submitted by Veteran-Owned small businesses for this contract, therefore, the Veteran-Owned Small Business Preference Program was not applied.
ALTERNATIVES:
Should this contract not be approved, ACS would re-release a second RFP and/or devise strategies to manage marketing services for ACS.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This Ordinance authorizes a contract in the amount of up to $120,000.00 for the remainder of FY 2017. Funding for this contract is included in the ACS FY 2017 Adopted Budget. Additional funding, in an amount of up to $150,000.00 annually, is subject to City Council approval of the annual budgets for total compensation of up to $420,000.00 over the term of the contract.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of an Ordinance authorizing a contract with aMAEzing, LLC for marketing and advertising services for ACS.
This contract is procured by means of Request for Proposals and the Contracts Disclosure Form is attached.