CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING Request for Proposal ( RFP ) For Digital Content and Management Analytics Project

Transcription

1 CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING Request for Proposal ( RFP ) For Digital Content and Management Analytics Project RFP AT A GLANCE The Corporation for Public Broadcasting ( CPB ) seeks a Consultant(s) to increase the awareness and use of digital media analytics to assist public media stations to improve their digital content and social media performance leading to improved organizational health and mission outcomes (the Project ). Proposals are due via no later than 5:00 PM EDT, FRIDAY, JANUARY 19 th. Bidder s Conference will be held at 1:30 PM EDT, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21 st. Please RSVP to sheffern@cpb.org. OVERVIEW CPB is a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in The mission of CPB is to facilitate the development of, and ensure universal access to, non-commercial, high-quality programming and telecommunication services. It does this in conjunction with non-commercial educational telecommunications licensees across America. CPB serves over 171 public television and 445 public radio grantees operating over 1,100 stations. Historically, public media stations have had limited access to state-of-the-art broadcasting and digital content performance data. There is limited capacity at the station-level to analyze available content usage data. Public media programming and content is increasingly being consumed via online and mobile platforms. Public broadcasting station leadership need support systems and tools to understand and assess the usage and impact of their web, streaming and social media content in order to manage a healthy business and fulfill their local mission. Station interactive, broadcast programmers, development/membership staff all need access to analytical tools to 1

2 gauge the performance and improve the user experience of public media content across multiple platforms. CPB seeks to assist public broadcasting stations in increasing their awareness and use of digital metrics that lead to improve organizational health and engagement with their communities. While the opportunity to collect usage and other conversion metrics are growing over various distribution platforms, this effort will focus on metrics associated with station websites, core streaming services used by public media, such as PBS s COVE (video) and social media platforms. We believe that the opportunity to provide analytical support to stations requires a broader engagement and service strategy. It includes a need at the station leadership level to increase the awareness and use of analytics in strategic decision-making; exposing more station content to analytics (through content and page coding); and centralized or cost-shared analytical support to individual stations as the most effective and affordable manner to improve decisionmaking and determining system health. In the past two years, CPB has funded a project called the Public Media Metrics (PMM) project that provides station website analytical services. This project has enrolled an initial 75 stations that have implemented Google Analytics on their site. These stations have the potential of providing a starting point for the successful respondent(s) to this RFP. CPB is seeking to engage a Consultant(s) for a period of approximately twenty-four (24) months to develop and implement the Project across public media stations. CPB is interested in providing the initial investment to build a sustainable, cost-shared service(s) that provides increased awareness and analytical capacity to public media stations. CPB s funding is to be used to establish and subsidize a system-wide set of services that will need an appropriate business/pricing model to sustain services beyond the tenure of this grant. There are four distinct, but connected parts to this grant: 1) Creation of metrics database, 2) Provision of shared analytical services, 3) Analytical research, and 4) Increase awareness of analytics and data-driven decision-making. CPB will accept responses from Consultant(s) to one or more parts of this RFP. CPB will also accept projects that contain multiple parties that present a unique set of skills that respond to the full project scope. Selected Consultants will be required to work with other selected Consultants on this Project. The Consultant will serve as 2

3 manager of the Project, or discrete scope of work elements, and act as liaison between CPB staff, participating public media stations, other public media entities and other partners. PROJECT SCOPE CPB seeks to assist public broadcasting stations in increasing their use of digital metrics to improve content performance, improve engagement with audiences and drive decisions that improve the underlying health of the station. The project will focus on station websites, streaming audio and video content and social media engagement metrics. The project will assist CPB in gaining an understanding of the digital health of the public media by assessing the amount of digital activity taking place across the public media system. CPB is seeking proposals that will utilize Google Analytics and related Google products as a basis for station website traffic services. For accessing streaming content data, the Consultant(s) should be aware that public media utilizes a variety of audio and video streaming services. For purposes of this Project, our focus is on those services that provide the vast majority of content streams, which includes PBS COVE (video + Limelight as CDN), YouTube (video), Limelight, AndoMedia, ShoutCast, Stream Guys (audio), and a handful of individual stations who stream their own content. For the initial social media data, this Project is focused on those platforms where the majority of stations engage with their communities; Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. CPB will provide initial resources to the Consultant(s) to initiate this scope of work to public media stations. It is our expectation that for a shared analytical service to be sustainable beyond CPB s investment it will require a business model offering tiered subscription/pricing of service to stations. The Consultant(s) should be prepared to initiate this business model at the start of this project, though we recognize the need for a low barrier of entry to stations and subsidized service through the two years of this initial project period. Beyond the CPB investment period we anticipate that a business model will require subscribing stations to pay to continue service. The response to this RFP should describe the business model, as well as pricing model for subscribing stations during the project period, as well as after the completion of CPB funding. The role of the Consultant(s) will include: 3

4 1. Centralized Metric Database(s): Establish a shared station website, streaming and social metric database(s) to provide a unified tracking system fitted to various station sizes and financial resources. The goal is to incorporate website and content streaming metrics from a minimum 175 television and radio subscribers, with a stretch goal of 250 stations providing automatic feeds of relevant data into the central database(s). The goal for social media metrics is to incorporate data from a minimum of 50 stations, with a stretch goal of 100 stations. At a minimum the Consultant must: a. Develop a centralized database that collects, stores, processes and provide access to analysis and reporting of data from station websites and content streams. b. Work with stations and their audio and video streaming providers to automate the collection of relevant data and transmit that data to the metric repository. c. Based on the positive result of future CPB discussions with selected public broadcasting service organizations, successfully incorporate automated data feeds from their website and content streaming services into the centralized database. 2. Shared Website, Streaming & Social Media Analytical Services: Provide stations that become paying subscribers with shared analytical services of public media website, streaming content and social media usage and performance. Services, at a minimum, are to include site audits, monthly performance reports, and benchmarking station performance against peers. The consultant should also recommend additional services that could be made available including: full suite clickstream analysis, outcome analysis (strategic goal analysis, cost management, customer satisfaction/loyalty), experimentation and testing, voice of the customer analysis, and competitive intelligence. All services should provide stations with superior service in terms of standard availability/guaranteed uptime, speed and response of service in availability of reports, technical/best practice support, security of user access and the hosted environment and clear communications. The goal is to provide analytical services to a minimum 175 television and radio subscribers, with a stretch goal of 250 stations. The goal for social media analytics is a minimum of 50 stations, with a stretch goal of 100 stations. These services should: a. Improve the accuracy and completeness of data reporting from public media station websites and streams by conducting individual station website and streaming provider audits. 4

5 b. Create and distribute a concise technical manual for stations to properly code station web pages, video, audio and other digital media to capture metrics for Google Analytics and other prevalent, mainstream content streaming services. c. Provide at a minimum online monthly digital content performance reports via secured reporting portal, including: i. A website performance report to subscribing stations for website traffic that includes visits (all types of standard measurement), visitors (all types of standard measurement), time on page/site, bounce rate, and exit rate. ii. A streaming content performance report that includes number of active streams, number of sessions, total hours of streams, number of different persons who consumed streams, the number of open streams (during a defined time period), average number of open streams, and peak streams. iii. A social media performance report to subscribing stations for social media activities that includes followers/fans/subscribers, and total/average of: mentions, reach, churn, posts, page views, interactions and basic off site interactions. d. Provide at a minimum an online monthly comparative benchmark report to subscribing stations via a secured reporting portal of website, streaming and social media performance against other public media stations, type/formats, as well as temporal (vs. same month/previous year) e. Provide the capacity for stations to create and customize performance reports utilizing online report generation tools via a secured online reporting portal. These tools should allow a station to create customized key performance indicators ( KPIs ) and/or conversion indicators. f. Provide additional services that individual stations can utilize at various subscription levels or through ala carte pricing on outcome analysis, testing, voice of the customer analysis, competitive intelligence and other advanced services. g. Conduct monthly webinars on content, design and technical issues to subscribing stations that improve their execution of website, streaming and social media analytical systems and products. h. Formation of a Station Advisory Board drawn from an appropriate cross section of stations to guide in the development of the basic report, benchmarking report and provide advice on the composition of any additional services. (Note: the 5

6 project will form one Station Advisory Board with CPB input. If there are multiple vendors for individual scopes of services for the project they will work with the single Advisory Board.) 3. Analytical Research: Provide the public media system and CPB with quarterly analytical and research reports on topics and issues of interest to the public media system. (Note: Consultants selected for this activity will be provided access to the centralized database, even if they are not the provider of that service.) a. Form a Station Advisory Board drawn from an appropriate cross section of stations to guide the selection of topics for research reports. b. Conduct quarterly analytical and research reports that benchmark public media digital media performance in topical areas selected by the Station Advisory Board, such as the performance of news, educational content, etc. c. Produce quarterly executive briefing papers aimed at station leadership, program directors, news directors and development/underwriting directors on topics that drive strategic decision-making around content performance, audience experience and engagement and station health. d. Provide CPB with a quarterly report that benchmarks digital content activity, audience engagement and stations digital health. This report will be created by working with CPB staff to leverage the data and analytics being collected through this project. The Consultant will work directly with CPB staff on defining specific metrics and KPIs for the public media system. The analysis will focus on both activity, as well as trends of that activity over time. The Consultant will work with CPB to correlate digital media activity with other CPB station/grantee databases in a secure environment. The quarterly report should be delivered to CPB via a secure online reporting portal that allows for CPB to create customized queries and reports on-demand. Finally, each quarter the report will have a rotating highlight that provides detail and granularity content production, distribution and usage of public media journalism, education or other topics of importance to CPB. This highlight report may take the Consultant additional staff time to collect and analyze data on the particular topic. (Note: The respondent should indicate in the budget section their per hour cost basis for adhoc reporting work.) 6

7 4. Awareness: Increase the awareness and skills of public media station leadership in using digital analytics to improve content performance, improve engagement with audiences and drive decisions that improve the underlying health of the station. a. Form a Station Advisory Board (see above) drawn from an appropriate cross section of stations to guide the development of the scope of work and provide advice and oversight in its execution. b. Design and implement a general awareness and education campaign to provide television and radio station leadership with information on what and how digital analytics are utilized to drive strategic decision-making. This campaign should develop and implement appropriate messaging, materials and outreach plans over twelve to eighteen-months to increase the level and awareness and comfort on digital analytics. Engagement with stations should take place through electronic materials, webinars, ask an expert opportunities and coordination with system affinity groups. CPB will work with the Consultant to design an appropriation evaluation system for judging the success of the campaign. c. Working with CPB and other national broadcasting organizations and affinity groups, develop a six-month training and technical support program for up to fifteen (15) stations (selected by CPB). Specifically, the training program should be directed towards: broadcast programmers, interactive and membership staff to receive one-on-one, as well as multi-station support to develop and apply data-driven decision-making through customized, station-specific KPIs. d. Create guidance materials and other resources from the pilot program (above). These materials should be converted into documents/tools on conducting these conversations at stations, as well as lessons learned for station leadership and staff. Convene three regional consultations that invite interactive, broadcast programming and membership station staff from a minimum of five stations per consultation to discuss and plan for strategies that use digital analytics to improve content performance and impact, improve engagement with audiences and drive decisions that improve the underlying health of the station. The Consultant(s) should present their findings from the Pilot project and regional consultations at a minimum of three system gatherings, such as the PBS annual meeting, and annual conferences such as NETA, PRPD, PTPA, ima, and the PMDMC. 7

8 CONSULTANT REQUIREMENTS Each applicant responding to the RFP must respond specifically to each of the following required qualifications. The Consultant must: Demonstrate experience in providing superior digital media analytical services for media organizations of comparable size, scope and scale; Demonstrate experience and skills in building and managing the technical elements of the Project Scope; Demonstrate a superior ability to communicate with clients or partnering organizations; Demonstrate existing management capacity and skills to oversee all aspects of the Project described above; Demonstrate a knowledge or experience in working with nonprofit or other missiondriven organizations; Demonstrate an existing familiarity of the needs of the public broadcasting system; Demonstrate an existing familiarity and experience in digital media archiving. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS As a condition of this project, the successful Contractor will be required to provide hosting and other technology services throughout the term of the Agreement, but all materials produced shall be considered works-for-hire. For any materials that contain know-how, tools, frameworks or other proprietary material developed by Contractor, Contractor will be required to grant CPB a non-exclusive, non-transferrable, non-sublicenseable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use or copy such information for use with this Project. Should Contractor and CPB not continue its relationship beyond the term of this Project; the Contractor will be required to provide a fully functional replica of any and all databases and websites created pursuant to this Project. Furthermore, Contractor shall provide CPB with copies of all design document(s) in a form acceptable to CPB, which shall include a functional specifications document and any other relevant design documents, developed during the Term of this Project. Prior to the conclusion of the Term, Contractor shall make itself available (in person or via phone) to the IT staff at CPB to discuss the structure of any items developed for this Project and 8

9 to answer questions. Such items may include, but are not limited to, data dictionaries, entity relationship diagrams, source code and system files. REQUIREMENTS Each response to the RFP must contain the following: Cover Page Cover page should include the project title ( Digital Content and Management Analytics Project ), main contact name, mailing address, address and phone number. Proposal Narrative Be no more than 20 pages and be delivered in either Word or PDF form via to sheffern@cpb.org. (Note: CPB will accept responses to one or more parts of this RFP. CPB will also accept projects that contain multiple parties that present a unique set of skills that respond to the full project scope. The Consultant will serve as manager of the Project, or discrete scope of work elements, and act as liaison between CPB staff, participating public media stations, other public media entities and other partners.) Answer each of the Consultant Requirements set forth above; Provide a clear statement of the Consultant s general approach to providing analytical services to media companies, including any direct experience in using web, streaming and/or social media analytics to public media stations or public purpose media organizations; Provide a clear statement of Consultant s operational approach to each of the elements of the Project Scope of the project. (Please do not just respond with a regurgitation of our scope of work, but give some thought to how you, the Consultant, will accomplish the scope of work; your unique approach that distinguishes you from other potential vendors.) Provide a clear statement on additional services that the Consultant plans on offering to stations that exceed the basic requirements of the Project Scope. The Consultant should indicate whether these services would require additional fees and the amount of those fees. Provide a detailed business and pricing model that clearly shows sustainable revenues and expenses for providing database and analytical services to subscribing stations, how 9

10 CPB s funding will subsidize these services, as well as implementing pricing and proposed future (post-cpb investment) pricing to stations. From current data sources there are approximately 1,100 stations with websites, 900 stations with an average of two social media presences and 400 stations that stream audio and video content. We anticipate a low-cost of entry for stations in the first two years of the project. Annual station base cost for these types of analytical services, based on station size and activities, should be at a price that public broadcasting stations can afford. We expect the Consultant to specify station fees in their business model. A proposed timeline for the scope of work you are responding to through this RFP. Project Budget Respondents should quote a firm fixed price for the project, and a detailed budget narrative describing how prices and rates were determined. Also provide this additional documentation: a. b. Out of Pocket Expenses: Separately identify anticipated out-of-pocket expenses (such as travel) for which you propose seeking reimbursement from CPB. The contract will provide that no out of pocket expenses may be incurred without prior authorization from CPB. Ad-Hoc and Post-Term Rate: Include a rate, at which you are willing to provide various ad-hoc services, as well as to continue providing services once the initial term of the agreement expires; such rate should be good for an additional six (6) month term. EVALUATION CRITERIA Proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria: 1. Attributes and Experience Centralize Metric Database(s) Demonstrate experience and skills in building and managing the technical elements of the Project Scope with a focus on database creation, up-time management, security and data management; The quality and pricing of additional services over and above the basic requirements mandated in the Project Scope for CPB and subscribing stations. 10

11 Quality of materials submitted with a focus on approach and scope of work. Shared Website, Streaming & Social Media Analytical Services Demonstrate experience in providing superior digital media analytical services for media organizations of comparable size, scope and scale; Demonstrate experience and skills in building and managing the technical elements of the Project Scope; The quality and clarity of a sustainable business model for the database and shared analytical services to subscribing stations. The quality and pricing of additional services over and above the basic requirements mandated in the Project Scope for CPB and subscribing stations. Experience and knowledge in working with nonprofit or other mission-driven organizations. Quality of materials submitted with a focus on approach and scope of work. Analytical Research Demonstrate experience in providing superior digital media analytical services for media organizations of comparable size, scope and scale; Demonstrate experience in developing and executing applied research using digital media metric data. Demonstrate experience and skills in building and managing the technical elements of the Project Scope; The quality and pricing of additional services over and above the basic requirements mandated in the Project Scope for CPB and subscribing stations. Quality of materials submitted with a focus on approach and scope of work. Awareness Demonstrate experience in building and implementing communication and awareness campaigns on issues related to digital media; Awareness and experience on the issues and processes associated with digital media content production, distribution and measurement; Demonstrate experience and creativity in developing and disseminating best practice documentation; 11

12 The quality and pricing of additional services over and above the basic requirements mandated in the Project Scope for CPB and subscribing stations. Experience and knowledge in working with nonprofit or other mission-driven organizations. Quality of materials submitted with a focus on approach and scope of work. 2. Key Personnel Qualifications Provide resumes for each key person; including education, work experience, license and certifications. 3. Project Budget Respondents should quote an all-inclusive firm fixed fee for the element(s) of Project Scope they are addressing, along with the required additional documentation. FILING DEADLINE Please submit your proposal by FRIDAY, JANUARY 19th by 5:00 pm EDT. Bidder s Conference will be held at 1:30 PM EDT, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21 st. Please RSVP to sheffern@cpb.org. All proposals should be sent via in Microsoft Word or PDF format to Sarah Heffern, sheffern@cpb.org. No other forms of submission will be accepted. Each proposal receive will be acknowledged upon receipt. CPB reserves the right to reject proposals submitted after the closing date. If there is any information that would be useful to you as you prepare your proposal, please Robert Bole at rbole@cpb.org. Proposals submitted in response to this RFP by an applicant ( Offeror ) shall be valid for at least 90 days following the closing date of proposals. Proposals shall be prepared simply and economically, providing a straightforward, concise description of the Offeror's proposals to meet the requirements of this RFP. Neither multiple nor alternate proposals will be accepted. An Offeror should give specific attention to the clear identification of those portions of its proposal that it considers confidential, proprietary commercial information or trade secrets. 12

13 The selected Offeror shall be responsible for all products and services required by this RFP. Subcontractors must be identified and a complete description of their role relative to the proposals must be included in the Offeror s proposals. By submitting an offer in response to this RFP, an Offeror, if selected for award, shall be deemed to have accepted the terms of this RFP. Any exceptions to this RFP must be clearly identified in the proposal. A proposal that takes exception to these terms may be rejected. As part of the RFP review process, CPB may share materials, data, other information and analyses (collectively, Information ) with Offerors. As a condition of receiving such Information, Offerors responding to this RFP shall be deemed to agreed to protect, preserve and maintain all such Information on a strictly confidential basis, and to promptly return to CPB upon its request all tangible copies of such Information in your possession. CPB is not responsible for loss or damage to material submitted with or in support of this RFP. Any submission to CPB shall become the property of CPB (not including any intellectual property rights contained in such submission), and CPB is not required to return any submitted materials to any Offeror. CPB is not responsible for any violation of copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other rights that may result from disclosure made by response to this RFP. Solicitation by CPB of proposals does not constitute an agreement by CPB to extend funding to any party for the project under consideration. CPB may, in its sole discretion, elect not to pursue this project in any manner. By submitting a proposal, each Offeror grants to CPB the right to duplicate, use, disclose, and distribute all of the materials submitted for purposes of evaluation, review, and research. In addition, each Offeror guarantees that the Offeror has full and complete rights to all of the information and materials included in the proposal. Each Offeror also guarantees that all such materials are not defamatory and do not infringe upon or violate the privacy rights, copyrights, or other proprietary rights of any third party. CPB may, at its sole option, either accept an Offeror s initial proposal by award of a contract or enter into discussions with one or more respondents whose proposals are deemed to be reasonably likely to be considered for award. After discussions conclude, a respondent may be allowed to submit a Best and Final Offer for consideration. CONDITIONS OF AGREEMENT If a proposal in response to this RFP is selected for funding, Offerors will be required to sign a binding agreement. Until both parties have signed an agreement, no express or implied 13

14 commitment has been made to provide financial support. Offerors are not authorized to commence work until the agreement is fully executed. If Offerors opt to commence work, they do so at their own risk. No oral or written statement other than the signed, written agreement will govern or modify the relationship. As a condition of agreement, Offerors must guarantee that, among other things, any work they undertake on behalf of CPB is not defamatory and will not violate or infringe upon the privacy rights, copyrights, or other proprietary rights of any third party. Offerors must also agree to indemnify CPB against any loss resulting from breach of any of the guarantees contained in the agreement. Those receiving funds from CPB must be able to comply with a number of requirements that will be included in the operative agreement. These requirements include but are not limited to: (1) A demonstration of adequate financial support to complete the work for which they have been contracted and to deliver reports and/or other intellectual property created pursuant to the Agreement; (2) Maintenance, for 10 years following receipt of relevant funds, of all financial records to the project, which records shall be accessible to CPB, and to the U.S. Comptroller General or other representatives for examination and audit purposes. (Offerors will additionally ensure that any subcontractors or consultants under the agreement shall also maintain such records for the period specified and under the same terms); (3) Maintenance, for 10 years after approval of a final financial report, of a complete file of all subcontracts and other agreements, licenses, clearances, and other documents related to the work undertaken, copies of which shall be made available to CPB on request; (4) Submission to CPB of a copy of any U.S. Comptroller General final audit report in connection with the project; (5) Compliance with equal employment opportunity and nondiscrimination laws and policies; (6) Offerors will be required to provide documentation as to actual costs, and provide supporting detail demonstrating that all costs are reasonable, necessary and allocable to the requirements and objectives of the work undertaken; and 14

15 (7) All research and materials created, developed, compiled or produced pursuant to or as a result of this project (including but not limited to all reports) will be considered ordered and commissioned by CPB as works made for hire under the copyright laws, and made in the course of services rendered. If, for any reason, the proposed research and materials to be provided are not considered works made for hire under the copyright laws, then the Offeror will be required to assign all right, title and interest in and to such research and materials to CPB. Offerors further agree that neither they, nor any of their subcontractors, will have any copyrights or other intellectual property rights whatsoever in any research and/or materials created, developed, compiled or produced by them or by any subcontractor, or by any third party participating in the preparation of research or materials for this project. (8) The agreement will be governed by construed in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Other material terms and provisions will be set forth in the documents provided to the Offeror that successfully completes the selection process. CPB will have complete rights to the reports created as deliverables for this project. CPB will not be responsible for any costs incurred by an Offeror in preparing and submitting a proposal, or in performing any other activities relative to this solicitation. 15