How to Issue an Event RFP

OVERVIEW

The biggest problem with some Requests for Proposals is that they're not really that at all. Often they're just mandates to see what's shaking out there in event-agency land not that there's anything wrong with that.

The marketer actually looking for a new agency, in a way that kicks the tires and checks the engine, has to shape the specs to match the category and consumer.

At many corporations, experiential marketing is a new breed of animal, a branding platform built on surprise and delight, executed on chutzpah, and measured by body counts and market share. There's no Starcom in the event business to churn out group buys, no third party to organize discounts for interacting in this growing "medium of live."

Result: Event RFPs have to be structured differently from those for other marketing disciplines. The biggest (and hardest to come to terms with) difference from a conventional RFP, for example, is the price factor: The event business is about live interactions that often come down to the people you or the agency hire to deliver your brand experience. Marketers who try to commoditize this critical aspect of execution put their entire program at risk. In other words, rich experiences and indelible impressions ought to cost more per thousands than sweepstakes gamepieces.

The emergence of experiential marketing is happening, in fact, at the very time that purchasing departments are being pulled in to help with all kinds of RFPs. But the green-eyeshades set often balks at anything that doesn't have a CPM attached to it, and event marketing is far from having its cost structure universally understood. So smart marketers (who should be quarterbacking their own RFPs) either have to instill this upon their corporate bean counters, or risk fielding proposal requests containing erroneous specs. Having Purchasing heavily involved in RFPs is just not our philosophy, says Chris Resweber, director of marketing services with Oreville, OH-based Smucker Co. "It's about the concept, and the brand." Regardless of who's running the show, here's a peek at eight segments that should be in any agency RFP, with a few suggested event addenda mixed in:

PART 1. INTRODUCTION

Overview of your company and the brand. Give a look into the history of the company and a breakdown of products and services. Identify all wholly owned operating units.

Event Note: Include background on past events, size of sponsorship portfolio, and attributes and problems related to former programs. Acknowledge any venue-specific deals currently in place as well as celebrity endorsement pacts and when they expire.

PART 2. REVIEW PROCESS

State the goal of the RFP and describe evaluation criteria (broken down between creative and service capabilities) and timetable. Mandate what format submissions should be filed in, and at what maximum length. Identify a brand contact for questions and highlight important info (e-procurement passwords, shipping information) RFP recipients should know about.

PART 3. THE PROPOSAL

Identify the objectives, and whether this is project work or an AOR search. Include budget parameters. Describe any ideas already on the table. Discuss any execution challenges, and existing assets that the event can leverage. "Drive the RFP depending on what you're trying to achieve and how broad the supplier base is," advises Marc Hochman, director of customer service and delivery with Plano, TX-based Web-procurement provider Ebreviate.

Event Note: Experience means different things to different marketers. Steer the agency in the right direction by identifying which pieces of the puzzle are most important. If the creative idea is the premium, put that in. If you already have the idea and want to cost-out execution, emphasize price. If there have been problems with past event programs, aim your spotlight at the agency's capabilities and history.

Marketers new to events should be careful with budget parameters: Events are all about the execution you can't cut an experience in half partway through its activation. Along the same lines, RFP finalists usually come in at around the same price (sometimes at the exact same price). So be cautious (and realistic) about making cost the main determinant in choosing an agency, as you may end up back where you started.

PART 4. AGENCY INFORMATION

Get name, address, ownership, parent company, offices, number of employees, and revenue broken down by core competency and time zone. Ask for a list of top 10 clients by share of billings, and background blurbs on agency principals. Get written case histories related to agency-won industry awards from the past two years.

Event Note: Get the agency to rank its top three event core competencies; even full-service shops have their bread-and-butter services. Ask for revenues broken down by overseas activities (sweepstakes events, Spring Break activities, and more often take place away from U.S. shores). Get an impression of the field-staff network, if vehicle-build capabilities are offered, and what strategic alliances the agency may have with properties, malls, nightclub networks, and so on. Get at least three client references and two case studies pertaining to every core competency the agency offers.

PART 5. TARGET MARKETS

Check if there are any geographic areas or market segments (youth, sports, ethnic) the agency specializes in, both geographically and demographically.

Event Note: Discover what regional- or market-specific connections the agency has with venues, suppliers, and retailers that can aid event development and execution.

PART 6. CREATIVE COMPETENCIES

Get it all: creative team structure, background of chief creative officer, five examples of work. Does each office have a creative team or is there just one overall staff? Investigate the creative process.

Event Note: Events are about the little things. Gain insight into premium development, signage, on-site and off-site event creative capabilities. What's handled in-house; what's farmed out.

PART 7. CLIENT SERVICES

How are the accounts managed? Who reports to whom? Who will handle day-to-day client communications? Get a high-level description of the process for delivering services to the client (ask for a flow chart). What quality checks are in place to catch errors?

Event Note: Event marketing is, by nature, all over the place: on the street, in the mall, around the field. Find out how the agency communicates with the people executing the program, how data will be collected and managed, how the brand will be kept in touch.

PART 8. MEASUREMENT

Examine what measurement capabilities the agency has.

Event Note: Do you ever put this in your RFPs? We didn't think so. Get the skinny on exactly what ROI tactics the shop takes to support the experiential endeavors. Get a handle on surveys, research, and data monitoring as well as the techniques, any proprietary measurement products, and what's outsourced or managed in-house.

KICK THE TIRES

The traditional RFP process doesnít uncover true execution capabilities, which are the heart of the event world. EM suggests starting with a Request for Information to get a sense of capabilities among a list of shops. Then whittle the list down to the viable candidates and move on to the actual RFP. An hour on speaker phone isn't enough time. Visit the finalists. Sit in on a brainstorming session. Find out how they recruit. Event campaigns are live-your RFP should be, too.