Businesses and municipal departments in the City of Fort Collins, Colorado have formed a place-branding taskforce to develop a shared brand for the region.

Acting for the taskforce, regional DMO Visit Fort Collins has issued an RFP seeking "to identify a firm or agency with place-branding expertise to assist in creating a community brand..."

Scope of work, in a nutshell:

• Provide in-depth market analysis to determine how to market the area to residents and visitors
• Create a brand that can easily work across multiple platforms and media including signage, print, digital and websites
• "Facilitate the research process" to test the brand concepts through "detailed community engagement"
• Create and implement brand research plan to identify:
  • Key stakeholders
  • Defining characteristics of Ft. Collins image
  • Analysis of competing communities' marketing and branding
  • Metrics for success of branding effort
• Develop creative elements of the brand: designs, messaging, etc.
• Provide up to 2 rounds of revisions to concepts presented
• Create style manual
• Launch, promote and maintain the brand through an overall timeline of 8-12 months following contract award

Max investment anticipated is stated to be $125,000.

See the full RFP for very specific requirements (PDF with max of 30 8.5"x11" pages, etc.) for proposal content and format.

The RFP was issued 9 May 2022, and engagement is scheduled to begin the week of 18 July. Notice of intent to respond is due 18 May, proposal due 10 June.

For more information, e-mail contracting officer Katy Schneider at katy@ftcollins.com .

Comment: In my opinion, they're asking a lot for $125K.